The First Few Steps
by rawpotato
Summary: Sort of a sequel to 'Tiny Human Steps', which you don't really need, but I'd like if you read anyway. Forget the door shutting, and the coming back, and the sex with Mark, what happens to Callie and Arizona... only a few chapters until GA comes back.
1. Step One

_Hey guys, again, someone said sequel, so here I am. I dunno how excited you should get about this, so for the record, I'm gonna say... don't hold your breath, because you need to breathe to live, and you need to live to read, and you also need to live to watch Grey's Anatomy, which I never disclaimed in 'Tiny Human Steps'. **I do NOT own** [GA], this story is of my own imagination and as such has taken the 'fair use' thingy and put it to good use because I am not now, and nor will I ever accept, or solicit monetary gain from this story. Wanna know why, money is cheap, Calzona is pure, and should be kept as such. Money would just scandalize it. I'm gonna go all Criminal Minds on y'all and start this one off with a quote. Just to give you some of that delicious possibility that I love._

_Also, don't go rewatch the scene, you know what I'm talking about, it'll just break your heart._

_Happy hunting, rawpotato_

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_**"Now she's here, suddenly I know, if she's here, it's crystal clear, I'm where I'm meant to go." -Zachary Levi: 'I See the Light'  
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She was smoking again. So the cigarette wasn't lit, and the lighter she had in her hand was soaking wet from the rain, it didn't stop the fact that she was smoking again. Arizona Robbins was slightly disgusted with herself. Here she was, standing in the rain, holding a soaked lighter, a damp and disintegrating cigarette and staring broodingly up at the surgical floor, wet and cold and being so not awesome.

Yup, she was way more than slightly disgusted at herself.

And it wasn't as if she could, in all honesty, say this had come out of left field, she knew what stress did to her, she knew that if she was being honest she wanted another pseudo cuddling session with Callie. Instead of a rainy afternoon excursion where she could see the nurses and orderlies staring at her from the multitude of windows of Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital.

Dropping the wet mass of tobacco and paper into the ashtray beside her, she was about to abandon her desire to smoke and head back inside to start work again, when she noticed a lone figure coming towards her.

"You smoke?" Teddy's voice was punctured by the rain and the far off sounds of thunder rumbling over Seattle, and Arizona couldn't suppress the smile that spread her cheeks at her friends words.

"Depends." She called back, taking shelter under the umbrella that her friend had brought with her.

An eyebrow raise and a sceptical look were aimed her way along with the words. "On what?"

"The weather, my mood..." She trailed off, not wanting to add the most recent set of catalysts for her bad habit. The number of times Calliope looked at her in the day. The number of times Stark crossed her path with a degrading look, and finally the number of times she looked at Calliope.

"And..." The cardio thoracic surgeon prompted.

Arizona hesitated, Teddy was the only person that she had confided in about the on-call room, now only referred to out of need rather than desire, and then only as 'that one time', and Teddy was still the only person that Arizona trusted at this point in time.

Though no one said anything to the different, the SGMW staff had been divided on her return. There was a very definite line drawn in the sand, and though the opposing factions had so far gotten along quite peacefully, furtive glances were passed her way, and whispers were passed between patrons behind hands and files. Though others were on her side, not that there should be sides, this was a personal issue, Teddy was the only person that Arizona trusted with her secrets.

"And that's it Teddy." She started, deciding that laying loose all her cards at once is what had landed here in the rain in the first place. "What kind of weather is this anyway?" She asked lamely for a subject change. "Rain in January, shouldn't it be snow by now?" Even the weather was determined to spite her.

"Nice try Arizona, but I'm your friend, and I can see past that super lame attempt at changing the subject." Arizona couldn't help but laugh at the blatant jab at her vocabulary and the intense emphasis on the word 'super'.

"I missed you Teddy." She said on her laugh. It had been a long time since she felt like laughing, and she was glad that it was with Teddy.

It had been over a week since Calliope had corned her in the on-call room and it was a moment that she had relived over and over the past nine days, and she was just waiting for a repeat. They had fallen asleep after Calliope's confession of love, and had laid that way for long time until the incessant beep of a pager filled the room, and Calliope was called away to an emergency.

All that was said for goodbyes was "Never again Arizona." And a quick kiss on her cheek, and then she was gone, leaving a trail of cold and emptiness in her wake.

"I missed you too Arizona." Her friend whispered, wrapping her in a one armed hug. "So do you wanna tell me about why we are freezing out asses off in the rain while you were sort of smoking?"

"Do I really need to tell you or can you guess?" Arizona knew that her friend hated guessing games, and this was just one of the many ways that Arizona was still very much a child. Sure she went into paediatrics because of the difficulty and prestige of the position, but really it was because she loved kids and the games they played.

"Is it because the chief gave you your job back?" Another eyebrow raise.

She just shook her head, loving that Teddy was as willing to play this game as she was.

"Is it the rain? And you're, only now realising that you should have stayed in Africa where it was warm, and sunny and you wouldn't freeze your cute little dimples off should you go outside for a cigarette?" Arizona couldn't resist laughing at the mention of her dimples, but she shook her head once again.

"Is it Callie?" Serious. No eyebrow raise, no joking tone, and no subtle hint at laughter. Just straight seriousness.

Words failed Arizona as she opened her mouth to respond, so instead she just nodded. It was always Calliope. Since the first time she had laid eyes on her in the crowded and busy pit, then surreptitiously asked about her, she knew that it was always going to be Calliope. The one that she compared other girls to, the one that she would look to when she was having a bad day.

Even when they weren't on, with the babies, and the fighting and the shooting and all that, it was still Calliope. The way she moved, the way her eyes lit up when she was looking at a particularly gruesome set of bones that she would have to put back together, the way she loved everyone, the way she mourned when that love was lost. Arizona just couldn't get enough of her.

"Have you talked to her?" Concern laced Teddy's voice, and Arizona felt tears spring to her eyes. She would not cry over Calliope anymore. At least not in front of Teddy.

"I've tried, but she always ends up walking away, or even when I think she's about to talk to me, something happens." She sighed. Something always in the form of Mark Sloan.

"Something in the form of Mark Sloan?" Teddy asked, her words oddly mirroring her own internal tirade against the man. Not that Arizona could blame him, he was, after all, Calliopes best friend. She couldn't begrudge Calliope anything, and if Mark Sloan was what she had needed, then Mark Sloan is what Arizona would learn to love. Boob glances aside.

"Yeah. He's always there." Protecting Calliope from her, in his own, annoying and protecting way.

"He is annoying." Arizona wondered if Teddy was speaking of her own personal relationship with the man, or the role that he was currently playing in the life and times of Callie and Arizona. "But his heart is in the right place. I think. I dunno if he has a heart. Or one that isn't shrivelled and black. Can a black and shrivelled heart be in the right place? Black and shrivelled just screams 'wrong place' to me." She paused in her rant on the ins and outs of Mark Sloan's thoracic cavity. "What about you?"

"I'm sure he does. Have a heart I mean. But color and texture aside, why does he think he needs to protect her from me?" She's given him reason to, that's why. She knew all that she had done wrong, she also knew what Calliope had done wrong, but why on earth did Mark have to intercede.

"Do I really need to answer that, or do you already know the answer?" Once again, Teddy was right on track with her own thoughts.

"You were a really good choice in a friend you know. We think the same things." Arizona replied to her friend, without answering her question, about the question.

"So are you also thinking that we should stop being fools and get inside out of the rain?" Once again the heart surgeon's eyebrow raised and laughter filled her voice. "As my friend, I think you should respect that I'm cold, and come inside with me." Blue eyes met blue and smiles were shared before Teddy spoke against the silence of pounding rain. "I'll even buy you lunch."

Arizona nodded and step out from under the shelter of the umbrella and offered Teddy her hand. "I'll take that deal."

Once Teddy took her hand, she lowered the umbrella and they ran hand in hand in the rain back into the hospital.

"No Mark. I do not want to have a drink with you and little Grey." Callie Torres regretted her tone, but not the words as he best friend, and resident ex man whore, followed her through the cafeteria. She was happy for him, really, that he'd finally kissed Lexie and she'd kissed him back and they were together in happy bliss, but oh my god, he really just needed to shut up.

And stop asking her if she wanted to go out drinking. No. She didn't want to go out drinking with a happy couple, would couldn't take their hands off each other, who would probably steal kisses from each other, stare longingly at each other. Again, no. She didn't want that.

She'd had that. Had it with a beautiful, perky, bright and shiny, blond hair, blue eyed, dimpled cheek, fair skinned, absolutely gorgeous woman. And now, she didn't have anyone. Besides Mark, who had Lexie. She wanted it again. With the same blond woman who's been on her mind for the last nine days.

That had been her own fault. Practising avoidance had been doing wonders for her. She had even been able to convince herself that all the avoiding had been doing wonders for her heart and mind, but when she had seen Arizona walk into the on-call room and shut the door, her mind and heart had leapt into overdrive, running through what might happen, what had happened, and what wasn't happening between them, and after a brief, but violent, internal debate had followed her in and taken her into her arms.

That had been a mistake. A wonderfully nostalgic, finally peaceful sleep, which had led to what can only be called an apoplectic break down, of massive proportions mistake. Then it was back to avoidance. Luckily they hadn't been thrown together on any cases, that might actually be her undoing.

"Okay. So, no drinks. You, uh, you doing okay Torres?" Mark had finally caught up to her and sat across from her, placing his tray lightly on the table, despite his usual slam, bang, boom.

"I'm swell Mark." She replied sarcastically. He knew that she wasn't all right, he'd been butting into her life enough recently, to know that she wasn't all right.

"Blondie?" He asked, his soft attempt at brotherly concern touching, yet his complete lack of tact not enough for her to let go.

"Mark, seriously, I love you and everything, but drop it. I do not, I repeat," she punctuated each word with a jab at her salad, and her best Bailey glare directed towards him, "I do not want to talk about Arizona."

"Speak of the devil." Lexie's soft voice added to their conversation, and Callie was sure that she would require traction for whiplash from how fast she turned in the direction of Little Grey's gaze.

Callie felt her heart start faster, despised the wetness of her palms, rued the blush of heat that roamed up her cheeks, and cursed the fact that her entire body betrayed her at the sight of Arizona. She looked awful, and Callie wanted to rush over to and hold her, but she knew she couldn't.

She still didn't trust her. Didn't trust that she wouldn't leave again. She loved her still with all her heart, but with that came the anger, and the remorse and the need to hold her again, none of which she would allow herself to give into. She was going to work hard at getting over Arizona, but even in the back of her mind, she knew that there was no getting over Arizona Robbins.

The trio watched in silence as Arizona and Teddy got their own lunches, and made their way, Teddy's leading, across the room, as far away from them as they could possibly get, yet Arizona sat facing Teddy, her entire profile available to Callie.

"We can switch... if you want." Lexie offered, gesturing between them with her fork, and stealing a glance at the other pair of surgeons over her shoulder.

"Thanks, but that'll just be childish and immature." She paused and took a deep breath, wondering if she could make it through the rest of her break looking at Arizona. Since the on-call room, it will be the longest time that she will have had to look at the object of her life. "Besides... it's not like... you know."

What the hell was wrong with her? A lot, that's how much.

It was at this moment that one of their mutual friends walked into the cafeteria holding their own tray aloft. It wasn't that Callie had asked her friends to choose sides, in her mind there were no sides to chose; this was between her and Arizona, and no one else. Despite Mark and his popping up everywhere thinking it was not a personal issue.

It was comical the way Owen Hunt stood in the middle of the cafeteria. There were open tables between them, there were even nurses and hospital patrons between them, but it was between the two tables that he looked. Like a deer caught in the head lights, he took a step one direction and stopped. The other direction and stopped again. His eyes darting between them like he was watching a tennis match.

Towards Teddy he went. Callie wouldn't begrudge him the choice, he and Teddy went way back to the war, and he knew what true loyalty meant. Though the apologetic smile he sent her way warmed heart some. She had to stop thinking of this as a 'my side her side' thing. Lunch was lunch, they weren't in high school anymore, and she didn't hate Arizona. She loved the her.

Which was probably her problem.

Going back to her food, she noticed that the conversation had dropped to a halt.

"What?" she demanded.

"It's just..." Mark started, looking at Lexie as if he wanted her to do the talking. She shook her head and looked like she'd been kicked under the table.

"It's just..." She paused too, looking over her shoulder at the other group of surgeons, and Callie followed her lead and looked at them. Arizona's deep, endlessly blue ocean eyes were staring back at her and for a moment, brown eyes met blue and locked on each other. "It's just we were wondering if you had talked to her yet."

Callie heard the words, but couldn't understand them as she was looking at Arizona. It was a long moment while they looked at each other across the room, and as the corner of Arizona's mouth turned up in a smile, Callie couldn't repress her own.

"Callie?" She tore her eyes away from the ones she loved and looked to Mark and Lexie and saw that they had been joined by Derek.

"What?" she asked lightly back.

"Have you?" this came from Mark.

"Has she what?" asked Derek, the new comer to the conversation.

"Talked to Dr Robbins." Explained Lexie.

"Oh yeah, have you?" Once again Derek spoke.

Callie was starting to realise that she lived in a freaking soap opera. Not that she would complain, she loved her friends, her family really, but man they were a gossipy bunch.

"No." She calmly replied back, mentally chiding herself for spreading gossip. She was glad that no one, to her knowledge, knew about the on-call room.

A chorus of 'why not's' met her ears as Meredith joined their table and Karev and Yang joined the other table.

"I'm afraid." She whispered , looking over Meredith's shoulder at Arizona, hoping that she would once again see the small smile that Arizona had given her.

"Afraid of what? Roller girl?" Mark laughed and suddenly four pairs of eyes were looking at her, and just as quickly she had the urge to run away. How could she explain that George and Erica had ruined her from moving on? Because no matter whom she moved on from, besides Mark and like that ever had a real chance, the person she moved to left. George had cheated on her, ruining her trust, Erica had disappeared without a word stoking the fires of fear on abandonment, and even Arizona had left once. Then again a second time.

"I'm afraid she's going leave me again." She expected her friends to laugh, to mock her fears, they all knew what had happened between her and George, most of them had an idea about Erica, and again they all knew about Arizona leaving. The chief made that happen.

"Yeah... but she came back." She could hear the hesitation in Meredith's voice. Which was odd, because of all the people in her world, she expected the worst from Meredith. And though their history was behind them, and Callie still held that grudge, she could hear the sympathy mixed in her light voice. She looked at all her friends, then snuck a peak at Arizona who was absorbed in her conversation and smiling, god she loved that smile.

"I mean she came back, right. She's here. She's back." Lexie added helpfully.

Callie couldn't take it anymore, standing quickly and leaving her tray on the table with the shocked looks on all four of her friend's faces.

"Doesn't mean she won't leave again." She dropped in a deep voice as she turned and walked away. Callie wanted to let her back in, to allow Arizona to love her again, to share a bed, to hold hands, to love, but Callie wasn't sure she would survive if the blond were to leave again.

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_I'm vain, so here's a second authors note, if you want to see more... let me know. Peace y'all._


	2. Stepping Up

_Hey guys... I just want to let you know how much I appreciate all the support you guys have given me... It's amazing, and just know that this wouldn't be this, without you._

_Also... I love Peter MacNicol (Stark) He was Larry from Numb3rs, and it hurts me to hate him as much as I do now. The friggen jerk face._

_You'll understand._

_Happy hunting, raw potato. (Oh yeah, I don't own Grey's Anatomy... or the other thing used in this story. *wink wink*)_

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"Dr Robbins, here are the scans that you requested." The helpful nurse smiled as she passed over the thick manila vile, and Arizona had to smile back. It wasn't very often that she got smiled at these days, well a smile that didn't come with pity at any rate.

"Thanks Lily." She replied pulling out the scans of a young boy's abdominal cavity. It was moments like these that she had to live for now. Moments where she could look at a scan from months ago and be filled with pain at the tumors riddled through a six years olds body, and scans from today which showed the same boy to be tumor free. It wasn't often that she got her miracles, even fewer these days, and today was going to be awesome.

Henry Browns tumor free abdominal cavity had seen to that.

"Blondie!" Mark Sloan's voice ringing his annoying nickname for her through the air proved that today would so not be awesome.

"Mark!" She snapped at him, the nurses at their station, giving her glances at her abnormal outburst.

"Whoa! Okay, how's Roller Girl?" He asked, coming up to stand beside her, leaning against the counter.

Turning to face the man who had become the bane of her efforts to speak to Calliope, she groaned in frustration as she saw the smirk on his face that sent all the nurses scattering, but not out of earshot she noticed.

"No, I dunno, how about, gee, my name. Doctor. Arizona. Robbins." She jabbed her finger into his chest and looked up into the face that she so very often wanted to hit with a brick.

"Um, how about, no." He laughed swiping her pointer finger away as if it were a mild annoyance. Right now she was mildly annoyed. Or majorly annoyed, it was hard to be relative when it came to Mark Sloan and his man-whorish ways. Reformed by Little Grey or not. "Oh, I got it, 'Wheels'."

"How about I call you 'guy with bloody nose because he got punched in the face by a girl who's half his size'?" She noticed that several of the nurses that had hung around smirked at her comment, but the man himself seemed to have not noticed her words and was once again looking at her with every fibre of his being shouting that she couldn't hurt him, he was a big strong man.

"Oh my god, Blondie." He couldn't even call her by her given name while he was making up new names for her. Deciding to walk away from him and his childish antics, she was just about to take a step when he added, "I've got it. Toto."

Toto... like, "we're not in Kansas anymore" Toto?

"What?" She asked perplexed, wondering if this was a thinly veiled degrading comment.

"You know, Toto? Rock band from the early 80's? Their song 'Africa' made it to number one on the Billboard Top 100 hits in February of 1983. Seriously, Toto? If you're going to be named after something, you think you'd know a little about it." He said in a mocking tone. All desire to leave had left her at his thoughtless comment.

She knew that he meant no harm, that he was just being his usual charmingly funny, self, but Arizona couldn't see past the hurt that had clouded her eyes.

And then he started drumming. Humming as well, shortly joined by the nurses, and even one elderly man in a wheel chair. He was not going to sing.

She could feel the blush rising in her cheeks, could feel her entire body flush with the desire to run away from the most annoying man in the world. He was going to sing.

"_I hear the drums echoing tonight, but she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation." _She shuddered with embarrassment as he started singing. The nurses' were no longer frowning at him, but had taken up his drumming, his humming and had even joined in his singing. When had she fallen asleep, for surely this was a dream.

No, not a dream, a horrible, awful, terrifying nightmare.

And still he kept singing, _"__She's coming in 12:30 flight, the moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation. I stopped an old man along the way."_ She was going to kill him. She'd apologize to Calliope later, but she was really going to kill him. Couldn't he see that this was physically painful for her? Not only because he was singing at her in a crowded, and fast filling hallway, but because Africa still pained her.

She'd used to love this song, had had it on her iPod, had listened to it frequently with Calliope before their falling out, had loved to sing and dance with her, but then the falling out had happened. It had come on her iPod, and it was the first thing she had truly heard since she'd gotten on the plane. The words were like scalpels slicing through her, spilling the memories of this song and all the times that she and Calliope had with it.

But, no. He was wrapped up in his song, and his dancing and the harmonizing. _"Hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies, he turned to me as if to say, Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you."_

Arizona knew what was coming next, knew that the next line would be her undoing in this moment, and that she had to run away. _"It's gonna take a lot to take me away from you, there's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do."_ Gathering what was left of her senses, she dropped the file and the film that she had been holding, she let the tears that had filled her eyes fall and she ran away, the chorus of the song still following her as she made her hasty retreat.

"Blondie?" She heard Mark follow her, and she didn't care enough to stop him. Him and his stupid singing, and his stupid insight and his stupidness, being the cause of her tears at this moment. Finally she wasn't crying because of Calliope.

So she was crying because of Calliope, and Mark, and Africa, and Mark and his stupid song about Africa. She should never have left for Africa.

Bursting into the nearest closet she still allowed Mark to follow her because he had stopped singing, and the look of protection he'd had over Calliope and Sloan Sloan and her baby, was now gracing his features which were pointed at her.

"Robbins," he paused, softly shutting the door behind him and turning to look at her.

Finally getting her name right causes even more tears to fall, and sobs to rack her body. Her first full blown mental breakdown since coming home, and it had to happen in front of him.

Before she could realize what was happening, his strong arms were wrapped around her, tucking her head into his shoulder and rubbing soothing circles on her back. This was the first time that she could recall ever fully appreciating the person that Mark Sloan really was. And she was getting his shirt wet.

Well, it was his fault anyway, she wouldn't feel bad for the tear stains on his shirt.

"Shh, it's okay Arizona. You can tell me what's wrong." She heard him pause and felt her sobs recede as he continued to rub circles on her back.

"No I can't." She replied a little breathlessly. Wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him as tight as she could. She didn't normally like being held by men, except her dad, but for some reason she was oddly comforted by his arms around her. Perhaps because it was because it was the first physical contact that also wasn't out of pity since 'that one time'.

"Sure you can. I am really good at keeping secrets." His voice was soothing and despite the light tone his voice had taken on, she could still hear the soft concern it had held before.

"No you're not." She laughed, patting his back. "You are a self proclaimed 'excellent gossip', and if I tell you, you might tell Callie, because you are her best friend, and your loyalty should lie with her." Arizona wished that she could lie with Calliope.

"It's true. I am an excellent gossip." He laughed and continued rubbing circles on her back.

They stood embraced for a few long minutes, until Arizona felt that she had pulled herself together, and her tears had ceased, she patted his back one last time and pulled away from him.

She took a deep breath and opened her mouth, deciding that if Calliope trusted him, she would give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen, her personal life is blabbed about amongst the throngs of hospital employees. "I've been back for a month, and nothing has really happened. Stark is here and peeing over everything like he's some dumb cat that has to mark his territory. I have nowhere to live, I've lost all self respect and Calliope... She won't." She stopped talking, feeling the tears forming again.

"You came back for her?" He asked, voice all soft concern and not even a hint of the trademark Mark Sloan jesting. His eyes found hers and Arizona couldn't believe the questions she saw in them. He really didn't know. He, Calliope's best friend, didn't know the truth of that fateful Thursday night, and Arizona wondered for the first time how much her coming back had affected Calliope.

"Who else?" she questioned back.

"I knew that you were back, knew that you talked to her, but I didn't know that you came back for her." He paused and took a deep breath himself, and after swallowing, he spoke again, an unexpected whisper. "Does she know that you came back for her?"

Arizona just shook her head, and sighed as words failed her. Arizona hadn't even fully realised, or at least acknowledged that it was because of her until Mark had started singing that stupid song.

"So it wasn't my singing?" He joked, and she couldn't help but smile and lightly punch him in the shoulder.

"Of course it was you're singing. I'd need to get my tequila on, before you got your karaoke on." She was glad that they were back to laughing. For the second time in five years, and in as many minutes, she was thankful that Mark Sloan was in her life.

They had moved towards each other for another hug when Arizona's pager went off.

"Oh crap, 911 in the pit."

They walked out of the closet together, and Mark just had to go and ruin the moment by grabbing her arm, the old evil glint in his eye, and a small smirk on his lips. "Who would've thought that I'd come out of the closet with a hot lesbian."

Arizona just chuckled and started off on a run towards the pit waving her hand over her shoulder and not turning back so he wouldn't see the smile on her face. "Go save lives Robbins." He called back, and Arizona just smiled.

[GA] [GA] [GA] [GA] [GA] [GA] [GA] [GA]

"Okay, what do we got?" Callie asked as she walked into trauma room two, and surveyed the scene. On the table sat a bright eyed young boy with dark blonde hair, and eyes that were eerily the same color as Arizona's. She sighed, and wondered when she would ever be free of things that would remind her of Arizona.

"Austin Green, nine years old, fell out of a tree and has a compound tib/fib spiral fracture to the left leg." Tyler, her favourite male nurse sprouted, and Callie instantly moved to the boys left side, as Tyler's voice continued speaking. "Also has complaints of pain in his right arm and chest."

"Hey Austin," she said to the boy on her table as she pulled on some gloves, and set to work, looking at his leg, and the protrusion of bone that was sticking out of his quickly paling skin, and she felt her heart hurt for the pain that he was going to be in later.

"Hi." Though his color was fading fast, probably due to the shock of the fall fading through his system, his voice was bright and alert, matching the light that she could see in his eyes.

"Can you tell me how you fell out of the tree?" She asked him, her mind in work mode, and moving swiftly but softly through his entire body looking for any other breaks or injuries that might require her attention.

"I got dizzy, and then my heart felt a little funny, and then I don't remember." Callie could hear the fear in his voice, and once again her heart hurt for him.

She looked up at Tyler who was already at the phone in the room, and as their eyes connected she read the words that he mouthed at her, 'Paging Shepherd and Altman.'

Suddenly there was another voice in the room, and Callie didn't even have to look at the woman to know that she was Austin's mother, her voice and the way that Austin's eyes automatically tried to focus on her though his head was still strapped to the c-spine. "Can someone please page Paediatrics? Also someone from oncology?"

Callie closed her eyes and sighed. Paediatrics meant Arizona, and oncology meant cancer, her heart tugged for the little boy, and she suddenly despised the swell of anger that took over her at the possibility of seeing Arizona. Arizona was the best, and any boy who could be this brave with his severity of injuries deserved the best.

"What do we got?" Callie rolled her eyes as Dr Stark moved into the room and pulled on some gloves. Callie despised the man. He was arrogant, and cocky, in a way that wasn't sexy, and besides all that the guy was just an ass. But, she was rising above now, and she would in this situation as well.

She only half listened as Tyler rambled of the stats again, and was busy feeling Austin's ribcage when a body rudely bumped into her side, causing her hand to force pressure on some obviously broken ribs and a shout of pain to fill the room from the previously quiet boy.

"Watch it?" She yelled at him, quickly saying sorry to Austin, who had tears in now.

"Well, get out of my way." Came the curt reply, and Callie felt her anger rise above.

"Seriously dude, I'm working here." She asked, throwing her elbow out subtly, to make more room for herself to check over Austin's body.

"Move." Came the rude reply again.

Standing to her full height she looked Stark in the face and decided that rising above was not going to cut it in this situation.

"Shut up Stark. You can't just come in here and push people around." She was yelling now, all semblance of control lost as she slammed her finger into his chest.

"Hey, just get out of my way and we'll be fine." He asked, poking his own finger into her arm while slapping her finger away.

"Seriously?" She yelled, and clenched her fists to move towards him, when a loud voice filled the room.

"Dr. Torres." The stern voice was from Derek, who was now getting the stats from Tyler.

"What?" She yelled at him, fists still clenched and anger running through her veins as she pushed past Stark once more and resumed working on Austin, albeit a lot less violent and angry than she was feeling.

"Never mind." was his only response as he ordered a barrage of tests and pre-ops for the boy.

The tension in the room was thick, that when another person moved into the chaotic room, and Austin's cheery voice broke the silence with a piercing scream, "Dr Arizona." Callie thought she might have exploded.

Callie refused to look at her, but felt relieved that the other woman's presence moved to her side, and leant into it a little as they both looked down at the boy.

"Hey Austin," Callie closed her eyes at the sound of her voice, and just took it in, her tone light and joking as it always was when she talked about, or to, or of her kids. "I thought we agreed that we weren't supposed to see each other again."

Callie resumed her work, but did everything from Arizona's side, where she felt the blond pull on gloves and start her own examination of the boy. The room had gone eerily silent, except for Starks muttering rant in the corner of the room by the door.

"We did, Dr Arizona, but I fell." His voice quavered with emotion, and as he spoke again he felt Arizona give a shudder and instantly Callie moved her body closer to the other woman who stilled instantly at her touch. "I got dizzy, and my heart felt funny. Does this mean," Callie heard two intakes of breath as Austin gulped, and stuttered. "Does this mean my cancer's back?"

"Oh God," Callie thought as the activity in the room picked up and people started moving even faster, ordering more tests than what were already ordered.

"I dunno buddy," Arizona's soft voice filled the room, and Callie watched as she wiped a tear from his cheek.

"CT's ready." Olivia came in and announced, setting about another flurry of activity.

"Everybody good to go?" Derek asked to the room in general.

"I need scans of his abdominal cavity and head, which I assume that you are going to get anyway." Were the first words said by Arizona. "Also a complete blood work-up."

"I need a full set of X-Rays so I can plan a strategy for surgery." Callie added.

"Okay let's go." Derek's voice filled the room, and once again everyone was moving. Though the second the boy and his mother had left the room, Stark rounded on Arizona, which instantly filled Callie with the rage that had slowly been ebbing away from her body.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing Robbins?" He practically screamed at her, getting all up in her face. Suddenly the room was filled with the sound of angry buzzing in her ears as Callie opened her mouth to yell right back, but was interrupted by Arizona who had started yelling right back.

"He is my patient. Mine." Okay, so maybe her powers of persuasion had dimmed a little, Callie couldn't help but smile as she watched her former lover stand up for herself.

"I don't care. I got here first, and this case is mine." Stark yelled again, spit flying from his mouth as Derek and Mark came back into the room, standing behind them and watching the scene before them unfold with looks of mild interest on their faces.

"I don't care if you pushed him out of the damn tree, he is my patient, and it will stay as such." Arizona yelled back, and got right back in Starks face, and started defending herself. Callie knew her smile had turned into more of a smirk, but she couldn`t help herself, this side of Arizona, the protective side, was insanely hot.

Which was such an inappropriate thought at this moment in time.

"Don't you dare smirk at me," Stark had now rounded on her, and Callie was instantly glad that she hadn't yet unclenched her fists and that she was a scrapper. "If you had moved when I told you too, none of this would be happening."

Once again, just as Callie was about to defend herself, Arizona stepped between her and Stark, completely shocking her into a stunned silence. Callie felt her emotions drain as Arizona had jumped to her defence.

"No you don't. This is not Dr Torres' fault. She was doing her job, and you're just too pigheaded to see past the end of your own nose." Callie's heart swelled with pride and joy at hearing Arizona's defence of her, but then something happened while she was gazing at the back of the blonds head, and remembering how soft her hair was, and smooth her creamy skin was, and she was suddenly on the floor, head pounding and blood flowing freely into her eye.

Looking up she saw that Mark had a flailing Stark pinned to the window of the room, and Derek was holding back an extremely flailing Arizona who looked like she was ready to beat the man up.

"Ow." She said, a little lamely, raising herself to a sitting position, and swiping at her throbbing forehead. Bringing her hand down in front of her eyes she noticed that it was covered with a lot of blood. The shouts and screams went on around her, and she just sat lamely on the floor waiting for someone to notice her.

"Get him out of here." Derek yelled, and finally Mark, a much larger and imposing man, practically hauled Stark, still flailing, out of the room. "Calm down Robbins." Derek soothed in a softer voice, still holding her shoulders.

Finally they noticed her, and suddenly Arizona, all blond hair and blue eyes full of concern, was in front of her, "Calliope." Her voice dropped as she dropped to her knees and blond hair falling over her shoulder, soft milky hand lightly caressing her face. "Are you okay sweetie?"

Callie couldn't comprehend the term of endearment, so instead she reached up and grabbed Arizona's wrist, effectively holding the other woman's hand in place, their eyes boring into one another's. Callie felt the tension leave the air as all that was in the room disappeared, and left nothing but the two of them. Staring into Arizona's eyes Callie felt that she was safe and the throbbing of her head was gone as she melted into the deep blue gaze of the woman across from her.

Then it was gone as Derek was at her other side, gently gripping her arm and helping her to a standing position, as he too examined her forehead. Unwilling to tear her gaze away from Arizona's, she nearly groaned out of frustration as Arizona dropped her gaze. Callie moved her eye's to Derek's, her hand still holding tight to Arizona.

"Yeah, that's gonna need some stitches."


	3. One Step Forward

_I'm not gonna lie, the response to that last chapter was kind of disheartening, but alas as Geofrry Rush, kind of, said in 'Shakespear In Love', the show must go on. And on it does. Here is your next installment.  
But first I need to clarify some things, I like Mark Sloan. I do, man-whoreing aside, he is really a good guy. You can see it in the way her acts in private, and I do like him. That being said, he meant Arizona no harm by singing the song. He doesn't know how affected she was, personally, by the song, and he made up for it by hugging her. Because he does care about her, just like her cares about Callie. Granted, he'd like to use his penis to care more than his heart, that's neither here nor there. Secondly, and this is probably the most important, the more I think about Callie and Arizona, on the show, not this, or any other story, the more my feelings of dread start to get worse. Maybe it's just me over thinking things, or maybe it's the cynical part of me, but I'm getting bad feelings. I'll try not to, but if that comes across, oh my god, please don't think I'd leave this with anything but a happy ending, I'm no Nicholas Sparks, let me know that you think I need to pick up the perky._

_But again, I love Mark, please don't hate him to much. You'll understand._

_Happy hunting, rawpotato._

_

* * *

_

Arizona stood by and watched as Derek Shepherd, resident neuro god and perfect hair man, did a quick neural pathway check on Calliope. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, parts of her called for a cigarette, stress building in her shoulders, Stark's words rolling over her again. Rolling her neck to ease the tension, she shut her eyes and leaned, forehead first, against the nearest wall.

"_No you don't. This is not Dr Torres' fault. She was doing her job, and you're just too pigheaded to see past the end of your own nose."She yelled at the diminutive man in front of her. Sure they were eye to eye, but she was a woman, an average American woman at five foot five, him though, he was just small, in stature and social etiquette._

"_Sure, and you're a pushy, arrogant bitch. It's no wonder why no man has claimed you." He sneered at her, and suddenly rage filled her eyes as his sexist gaze flicked towards a totally spaced out Calliope, and his oily voice dripped with distain as he added, "And this must be the little woman."_

_It was then that she snapped, totally lost her grip on reality as she lunged at him, all the colors of the rainbow blurring her vision. Before she could get anywhere near the tiny little man and punish him with all of her' minority rights' fists, Derek and Mark had sprung up between them and forced them apart. Arizona stumbled backwards and ran into something, but instantly regained her footing, and started back towards him only to be forcibly held back by the once chief of surgery._

She couldn't remember any of the words that she had said after that, but she knew that she wasn't proud of them; she also knew that she wouldn't have reacted that way had Calliope not been in the room. She had been dealing with the prejudice, and homophobia that filled this world her whole life, and usually she was able to let it go, but she already had a very large predisposition to hate Dr Stark, and his words against Calliope had been the final straw.

Luckily Derek and Mark had been there, because though she had instigated the fight she had seen her rage mirrored in his eyes, and the fight in his fists said that he wouldn't have been afraid to hit a girl.

She expelled a long force of air, ridding her body of the residual anger and remorse, emptying her for a breath of fresh air to fill her lungs and the calm and perkiness she normally was composed of to take over her body. Still leaning against the wall, she kept her eyes closed and slowly unclenched her fists, stretching and loosening the cramped muscles in her fingers.

It was several more moments of this, the expelling of anger and inhaling of calm, the stretch and loosening of muscles, and the silent self berate, before Derek came back to her side.

"Arizona?" He questioned her, placing a soft hand on her shoulder, a complete one eighty from the way her had to restrain her earlier. "You okay?"

She sighed once more and drew herself into an upright position. She opened her mouth to say she was fine, but that was a lie, and she didn't want to say she was fine anymore. Fine was out the window, so instead she shook her head and looked over his shoulder at Calliope, who was slumped forward, and lightly testing her forehead.

"How is she?" She asked, wanting nothing more than to rush to her side and soothe away the pain that was evident over her entire body.

"Good, she's good." He responded quickly following her gaze. "She's gonna need stitches, but there is no concussion or brain injury, but she will have a headache for a while."

"Okay." She just nodded, and took a deep breath, not knowing what to say to him for his actions earlier.

"Okay." He replied, and turned to walk away.

"Derek?" She called after his retreating back, deciding that she do it now, before her embarrassment got the better of her, and she just pretended like it hadn't happened.

He turned and looked back at her, stopping his movements. "Thank you." His eyebrows rose in a questioning way. "For stopping me, back there. That was... a little out of character." Which was a giant understatement. That was like an 'angry, cage-fighter, trapped in Arizona's body', out of character moment.

He did his little nasally laugh and took a step toward her, a smile that she had never seen on his face, "Well, out of character or not, you Arizona, are the new hero of Seattle Grace Mercy West." He laughed again, and Arizona felt her own eyebrows rise. "Already a legend. Robbins and Stark... peds showdown." He laughed again, and she couldn't raise her eyebrows anymore.

She shook her head as he walked away, and she turned back towards Calliope and made her way over there. She hadn't known where all of her pent of rage had come from, but it had fled her in that trauma room as she saw Calliope sitting on the floor bleeding, face covered with glistening red blood. That sight had scared the rage out of her, leaving in its wake a deranged sort of panic and protectiveness over the woman.

"Hey." She started softly and lamely, reaching her hand out to brush the lock of Calliopes hair back that had fallen in front of her eyes. The motion was so familiar and practised, that she only withdrew at the last moment, remembering that it was no longer her right to have such an intimate moment with her. A flash of hurt passed in Calliopes deep brown eyes, but was gone quicker than it came, and was replaced by something that Arizona refused to define.

"Hey." Came the soft reply back, and a pang of longing shot through Arizona's core as Callie brushed her own hair out of her eyes.

"How are you feeling?" Arizona asked, the desire to touch Calliope overwhelming in this close space.

Callie sighed, and Arizona felt her own breathing align with the brunettes and she smiled at the thought that they were still aligned and on the same pace.

"Here is the suture tray and local anaesthetic for you Dr Torres." A nameless nurse came by, oh so helpful and ruining the moment that Arizona had felt building between her and Callie. "Would you like me to page Dr Sloan?"

"No thanks, Dr Robbins can take care of this." Calliopes voice held no hesitation, and Arizona couldn't decide whether to feel proud or scared that she had been volunteered for this job.

"She can?" Both her, Arizona, and the nursed asked at the same time.

"She can." Calliope confirmed, effectively dismissing the nurse, and once again shrouding the two of them in their own little private world.

Arizona looked left and right, taking in her surroundings. They were down one of the side hallways, and empty, rarely used corridor filled with gurneys, one of which Calliope sat on, on one side and racks of medical supplies on the other.

Looking back at Callie, she was taken aback by the trust that she saw reflected on Callie's face, and the way that her mouth was turned up in a small smile, and her caramel skinned hand held out a pair of gloves for her.

"Are you sure about this Calliope?" She whispered, wrapping the opposite end of the gloves in her other hand, fingers brushing fingers, and jolts of electricity flying through her body at the miniscule touch. "Mark," she swallowed, finding words hard to form as she was still touching Calliope, "Mark could do a much better job."

"I don't want Mark, Arizona." Now Arizona was wondering if Calliope was talking about stitches, or something else entirely. "You can do them, and we can spend these few moments together, then, hopefully, Austin's scans and tests will be done." Calliopes words were filled with a distinct pause, and Arizona wondered if there was more that she wanted to say.

"Okay then." Arizona responded, tugging the gloves out of Calliopes hand and pulling them on.

The next few minutes were passed in silence as Arizona cleaned the wound, prepped her sutures and used a warm, wet cloth, to clean the dark skinned face and neck. Slowly, as the minutes passed in silence, Arizona had moved closer to Calliope's body, settling herself between the Latinas thighs while she worked.

It wasn't until she grabbed the needle and tweezers, and turned to look at the wound on Calliope's forehead, that she realized how close they actually were. Her breath caught in her voice seeing that Calliopes lips were only a few inches from hers, and that the deep brown eyes that showed every emotion she was feeling were darkened with something that looked a lot like desire.

Pushing down all of the bad things she was feeling. Lust, desire, love, she breathed out deeply and gathered her strength. "Last chance for me to get Mark."

Instead of responding, Calliope's hand found its way to her waist, and held her in place. Her head turned to the side offering Arizona the wound and better access to it, "You go ahead."

Unable to form words, she leant forward a bit and using her pinkie, tucked the loose strand of hair behind Calliope's ear, loving the familiar motion of it, and then she started, trying her best not to leave the beautiful face scarred from a mistake that herself had made.

[GA] [GA] [GA] [GA] [GA] [GA] [GA]

Callie sighed, loving the feel of having Arizona so close to her, she wouldn't mind the stitches and possible deformation for life, if it means having her this close. Of course she should be letting Mark do this, he was the most renowned plastic surgeon this side of the northern Rockies, and she knew that people came from all over the country to see him.

What the hell, if Arizona screws up, she could get him to fix her later. She still maintained scars were badass and poetic, and this one was definitely worth it.

"Wanna tell me what happened in there?" She asked lightly, hoping that the talking would cause a slight pause in Arizona's motions, extending their moment for as long as she could.

What she hadn't expected was the look of anger that had crossed Arizona's delicate features. Callie gripped the blonds scrub top in her hand, loving the feel of having her hands the other woman's body again. It was a beautiful thing, and she loved the way that even contact with Arizona's clothes made her feel like she was flying.

"Hey, what's wrong?" She asked softly, spreading her palm open on Arizona's hip, rubbing a small circle there, hoping to ease the tension that had come over the blue eyes that she loved to stare into.

"Stark." Callie rolled her eyes at the name, and she instantly understood. The man was a dirt bag, and she could understand the anger that was still etched on Arizona's features.

Second suture done, and she could feel her ministrations finally doing some good as Arizona relaxed into her touch, and started on the third suture.

"What'd he do?" She asked. She had been so focused on staring at Arizona, that she had completely zoned out, and was shocked that she could end up on the floor and require stitches and a neural pathway test from the head of neuro surgery, and barely remember what had brought her to the point.

"He... said things. Said, ridiculous things about me being a woman, being gay... then he..." Callie watched as Arizona finished the third suture, and start on the fourth, her body leaning so close and warm that Callie was so glad that she was here in this moment.

Despite the fact that she was getting stitches, and that Arizona was barely controlling the anger that was causing her to shake. Arizona pulled her hands away from Callie's forehead, expel a long breath, and try to control herself. Callie had never seen her this way, and it was another side of Arizona that she found intriguing and caused her to reach up and tip the face she loved so much, to look into her eyes.

"It doesn't matter. He's a sexist, egotistical, pig-headed, closed minded... jerk face." Arizona said the words on a huff, and resumed her work on the wound.

"Jerk face?" Callie questioned with a laugh.

"Yeah, I think I swore enough in the room, in the heat of the moment, and I can't swear any more... it's a bad habit." All traces of the anger had gone, and Arizona's voice had taken on the perky quality that Callie had learned to love. What she loved most about Arizona though was the way that her anger seemed to have dissipated with the light teasing.

They lapsed into silence once more, and before she knew what was happening, Arizona was throwing her drape and the excess sutures and equipment away, placing the needles and tweezers in the appropriate receptacles, then finally stripping her gloves off and throwing them away too.

Callie just watched in silence, drinking in the way her movements were fluid and practised, and the way her body moved in exactly the way Callie remembered it had, and then suddenly she was there in front of her with some butterfly tape, and moved back between her legs. Without permission of her mind or brain, Callie felt her hand lift back to Arizona's hip, and felt the soft ruffle of fabric as Arizona applied the tape.

"There," Arizona started, her deep blue eyes looking down into Callie's eyes, and Callie felt the world stop, as she stared into the endless azure eyes. The past was forgotten, and all she could see was the here and now, all she could concentrate on was the fact that they were there, and they weren't arguing, and for the first time since Arizona had come back, Callie was glad that she was back.

"Derek told me, you know." Callie started, her other hand moving to Arizona's waist as the smaller woman's hands came to rest on her upper arms, the blonds body still between Callie's legs and standing closer than she could ever remember being. Feeling her skin flush at the memories now flowing through her, causing warmth to flood her stomach and core, she bent forward slightly, inching herself closer to Arizona.

"What'd he tell you?" Arizona asked on a whisper, her hands starting to run slowly over her arms, and down to the bare skin on her forearms causing a swell of goose bumps to sprinkle over her skin up and down Callie's spine.

Callie sighed, deciding to seize the day, and go for broke. She'd been wanting to kiss Arizona for so long, so long that she'd lost count of the number of times that she dreamt about it, thought about it, fantasised. "He told me that if anyone had protected him the way you did me, that he wouldn't be so stubborn and..." She trailed off, his words of 'jump their bones' not appropriate for the moment.

"And..." Arizona prompted, softly, her breath so close on Callie's face that she had no choice but to close her eyes as the swell of memories overcame her. Lying in bed together, sated and spent, stolen moments in hidden corners in the hospital, long periods of time spent in the on-call rooms behind locked doors.

"And... I'm going to kiss you now." Callie whispered, using her grip on Arizona's hips to softly tug her forward, and bent her lips towards the soft pink lips that she had wanted to take for a long time, stopping just short, giving Arizona time to pull away should she so wish.

Just as she was about to close the distance, Mark came around the corner, calling her name, "Callie? Damnit Torres, where the hell are you?"

Callie groaned in frustration, and sighed as Arizona's head rested on her shoulder and she started whispering, "I'm gonna kill him. Kill him dead, then I'm gonna save his life, so I can kill him again." Leaving the blonds head where it rested, Callie turned her face towards the man that was soon to die, buy the perky blond who was in her arms. She may help her after this.

"Yes, Dr Sloan?" She asked, formality in her tone, her arms wrapping tighter around Arizona.

"Whoa... sorry. Torres. Toto." He said, then walked away quickly, in a move that was so not Mark. Usually he was very low on the social conscience, but this move, the leaving, was very grown up of him. Maybe Little Grey was good for him.

"Toto?" she asked, confusion lining her face as Arizona pulled away from and rubbed her hands over her face.

"Please, I beg you, don't ask." Callie couldn't help but laugh at the despondent look on her face, and the way her eyes looked like she was far away.

"I won't." She hesitated, knowing that the rest of her day was going to be filled with surgeries, and that Arizona had work of her own to do on little Austin Green, but she couldn't not ask, not after what had just happened between them. "Will you have dinner with me tonight, Arizona?"

Arizona's head snapped to hers, and her eyes were wide like she was a deer caught in the headlights. "Seriously?" Callie felt a stab of pain at the disbelief in her voice, the hesitation that she could see in her eyes, before remembering what had happened to Arizona the last time that she had been at what used to be their apartment. Callie knew they had a long road to go, a lot of ground work that needed to be done, that the past was the past and that new memories needed to take shape to cover old wounds.

"Yeah," she nodded, adding a hopeful smile to the mix, "my place. Eight o'clock."

Arizona placed her hands on Callie's face, and for a moment the Latina though she might get the kiss she'd been going for earlier, but instead Arizona's lips found their way to the cut on her forehead and laid a soft kiss there. When their eyes connected Callie was blinded by the smile that she received.

"I would love to have dinner with you."


	4. Two Steps Back

_I'm so sorry for how long this is. I mean it's not long, like super long, I just... you know. Anyways, here is part four, or five if you've read "Tiny Human Steps", which is pretty much awesome. I'm awesome. I've also actually been saying that long before I got into Grey's. My humility is so shocking, man, you have no idea._

_Thank you all, for reading, for reviewing. (Though I'm not asking for them, I do love them, and you guys are being super awesome for all the reviews I am getting. They make my heart soar, every time I see I get a new one.) And thank you all for sticking with me. I'm insecure about my writing, but you guys are obviously liking it, so I'm liking it. I hope you like this part._

_Happy hunting, rawpotato._

_

* * *

_

Pacing, Arizona had decided, was for the weak. The weak, the scared, the spineless, the chickens, the cowards, pacing was... for the weak.

And here she was, pacing. Again.

Her mind couldn't help but flash back to the drastically colder Thursday when she last paced in front of this door. The pain, the emotion, the fear, everything that she had felt, and left ignored for so long came crashing back to her in that moment.

_Raising her hand to knock, she remarked that it was possible for her to knock as she'd just walked up and down the hallway in front of the blue door that used to belong to her for over twenty minutes. She wasn't expecting an answer, she didn't know when Calliope worked, but she had hope on her side. Hope that the sight of her ex-lover could finally dull the longing ache that had built over the last 64 days. Hope that Calliope would be just as happy to see her, as Arizona knew herself to be._

_She had hope. Then she had Calliope's voice calling through the door. She couldn't hear the words exactly, but she could hear the darker, velvet tones of the woman's voice, and she had the well spring of longing rushing over as the door opened._

_Sensing that this was her chance, she opened her mouth to say this entire, moving speech she had written, she knew it was such because the nice, albeit harassed looking, flight attendant had said it was. She was awesome, and by extent, Arizona knew that her words were._

"_Okay, so picture this." So not what she had planned to say, but all of it, the planned, awesome words fled at the sight of Calliope and her off the shoulder number that Arizona let go the words that came to her, as silence wouldn't be acceptable._

"_I'm in Africa, and everything is great and the people are so nice and the clinic is amazing and I'm doing work that actually feels important. I can actually see I'm making a difference, but I'm crying, like constantly."_

_She could hear the rasp in her own voice, whether it was tears or nerves, she couldn't be sure, but she persevered._

"_And then this guy I work with at the clinic asks what's wrong and I say 'I miss my girlfriend, like I really miss her.'"Arizona also knew that this was the grossest understatement of the year, but again, she had to carry on._

"_So then he asks me if I wanna go back, if they can replace me, and I open my mouth to say 'no' but what comes out, weirdly, instead, is yes. And so I did, I came back."_

_She took her first breath of the speech, the unplanned, but no less moving, speech. Calliope had gone through several stages of emotions and facial impressions, all of which were framed by her now short hair. Arizona couldn't get over the hair, it was beautiful, and short, luscious locks that Arizona just wanted to run her fingers through. _

"_You look really pretty." Then the door closed, and she no longer had any hope._

Snapping back to the present, Arizona knew that she had hope again. And if not real hope, hope that would bring a well to life, that could move a mountain, float across the ocean, hope that could sustain her a little bit.

At least it was hope.

With that, she gathered up her entire frame, her courage, her strength, her awesome, and knocked on the door.

No voice called out this time, no sense of dread encroached on her heart, which leapt as the door swung open to reveal a smiling Calliope. She was stunning in her comfortable clothes, jeans and a shirt that clung to her in all the right places, fresh faced from a recent shower and smiles all over her face.

Arizona had always thought that Calliope was beautiful, if it was scrubs or an evening gown, or without clothes, the Latina was beautiful. A breath of fresh air after being inside all day, the first rays of sunlight after a rainy day, breathtakingly stunning she had once said, but now, after so long of sneaking glances and not being able to appreciate the beauty that was Calliope Torres, her breath was literally taken away.

"Hey." Arizona couldn't remember a more beautiful greeting from the other woman.

"Hello, Calliope." She responded, lightly stepping into the apartment, past the offered arm, hope finally gaining the upper hand in what had previously been a one sided battle with hopelessness. "It smells amazing in here." She offered in compliment, missing the times that Calliope had cooked a meal for them.

"I cook." Callie said on a laugh, and Arizona couldn't stop herself from greedily taking in the sight of the woman who was currently playing host and chef. Arizona had to be careful; she couldn't let her breath be taken away so often, soon she wouldn't be able to breathe at all. "It happens."

"I remember." The blond offered, painfully taking her gaze off of Callie's curves and looking her in the face. Into deep brown eyes, that were alight with laughter and glee.

And something else as she replied, "Me too."

She sat on one of the stools at the breakfast bar and watched Callie for a moment. As usual, Calliope's focus was on the dinner she was making, leaving Arizona free to once again rake her gaze of Calliope's form. She felt a little vulgar staring at Callie in this blatant and flagrant manner, but she couldn't help herself.

Then Callie turned to face her, and she couldn't stare without it getting awkward, so she asked instead, "How did it go today, with Henry's surgery?"

"Good." Callie supplied instantly, a smile spreading her lips. Full luscious lips, that Arizona had to stop looking at for fear she might not be able to resist the urge to take the woman into her arms and claim the lips that had once been hers to kiss as often and freely as she liked. "Good, he's a tough kid."

Arizona remembered all too well. "He is. I was with him the whole fight through his first bout with cancer." She could remember the good days, the bad days, even the days where they had thought that there wouldn't be any more days. "He is a tough little guy, always had a smile on. Even on the worst days, always a smile." The memory brought out a smile of her own.

"Wait." Callie said, placing a glass of red wine in front of Arizona, and moving back to her stove top to do something that the blond had no clue of its purpose, but turned to listen to the one who was doing the cooking, "Henry. You mentioned him a few times."

Probably, thought Arizona, she couldn't remember a time not talking about one of her kids. "Yeah," she said nodding, taking a sip of her wine to distract herself from the form of Callie.

"He's exactly like I pictured him." Callie offered over her shoulder.

"How so?" She asked, wondering what Calliope had taken from her words.

"Just like you." She was joking right, Arizona was sure she was joking. But the tell-tale glint in her eyes when Calliope was teasing her wasn't there.

"I don't..." She hesitated, then decided it wasn't worth panicking added. "What do you mean?"

"Seriously?" she laughed again, doing some awesome vegetable flipping while she talked over her shoulder, "The blond hair, the blue eyes."

"You just described, like, a hundred and ninety-five percent of the Caucasian race." So maybe it was an overshoot, she was just glad that they weren't yelling and screaming at each other.

"I wasn't done." Callie laughed with her, their moments going on and on.

"Sorry." Arizona apologised, taking another sip of her wine and allowing her gaze to settle on Calliope's backside while her back was turned. Shameless looking couldn't hurt.

"His smile, the cheery, perky voice, the honesty." Callie's voice had taken on a definite note of seriousness there, and Arizona heard Mark's question of 'does she know' float through her head, and figured that this was as good a chance as any. Callie was a willing audience right now, and Arizona needed to make sure that she make herself absolutely clear this time. No more forgetting her speeches.

"Speaking of," she began hesitantly, noticing that Callie's movements in the kitchen had slowed down, and slowly their dinner was coming together. "The honesty, there's something I need to tell you."

"What's that?" the brunette asked from inside the fridge.

Taking a breath, she once again persevered, "That day, that night that I came back, I didn't explain myself fully."

"What do you mean?" Callie asked, this time from the sink.

"I'd just spent nineteen hours on a plane, 64 days crying my eyes out, countless hours and minutes pinning after you. I crossed an ocean, two continents, wrote and re-wrote my speech at least a million times, and then paced for twenty minutes, and then you open the door."

She took a deep breath, realizing that she needed to learn how to breathe and talk at the same time.

"Still not getting it Arizona." Callie offered her after a few moments of silence had passed between them. While she had been ranting, Callie had come to stand beside her, well on the opposite side of the counter of her, but it was the most focused attention that she had paid Arizona so far that night, and Arizona suddenly missed the inappropriate staring opportunities.

Still, she persevered, "Don't get mad... or a big ego." She tried for teasing, but saw the look on Calliope's face and instantly regretted the tease, so she went on, trying for seriousness. "but you were so beautiful, and like a breath of fresh air, sorry for the cliché, but I forgot what I wanted to say." She finished on a breath, watching, waiting for Calliope to answer me.

Arizona could see the look of trepidation on the Latina's face, and suddenly she had a bad feeling about this, and the hopelessness was starting to put up a fight.

"What was it you wanted to say?" She asked, and Arizona feared the hesitation in her voice.'

Taking another deep breath, she knew that once again she was going to lay down all her cards. "That... I came back for you." That wasn't so hard, now was it, take that Mark Sloan.

"You... came back for me?" Hadn't she just said that? Arizona was kind of wishing for Mark Sloan and his wisdom right now.

"Why are you mad?" She asked, a little scared that Callie had moved away from her and put on her angry face.

"You came back, for me?" Arizona wondered if Callie was saying it for her benefit, or for her (Callie's) own.

"Calliope?" She questioned, hoping to drag the other woman from her reprieve.

Then Callie rambled something off in Spanish, and Arizona knew that she was in trouble. So she tried for teasing again, "I don't suppose that was 'I'm so glad and happy to hear that' in Spanish."

Then Arizona was positive she was in trouble. Callie was in full-blown Spanish rant, and no matter how much she called her name, Callie wouldn't stop.

She waited for a long while, and tried to catch a few things, but even after a year with the other woman and her Spanish rants, Arizona could only make out a few words and phrases and even then, it was only if Callie was speaking slow. And even further then, it was mostly sexy things that were whispered and explained as they lay together in bed and after long sensuous, private moments.

Neither if which this situation was, so she was helplessly lost.

Then she had no choice whatsoever to get this conversation back on even footing, and in the same language, she pulled out the only card she knew would get Callie's attention.

"Calliope Iphigeneia Torres!" She shouted over the rant of the woman.

"Don't you dare." Said woman shouted, and turned on Arizona, while quickly moving across the living room. "Do not use my full name."

"I tried to calm you down, but all you were doing was ranting in Spanish." She shouted back, pushing away the anger that was threatening to overtake her, "I don't speak Spanish."

"So when you came back and I shut the door," Arizona wanted to cry from that jab, but she wouldn't. She'd cried in front of Mark, that was bad enough. Never in front of Calliope. "Or when I told you about Mark," another jab, straight to her heart. "you didn't think, that I dunno, maybe I didn't want you to come back for me?"

Arizona felt the first wave of tears build in her eyes, the thought had crossed her mind, but she had dismissed it as foolish, "No." She lied, hoping that Callie couldn't see the lie, or her tears.

"'No'. 'No'?" Callie was shouting again, and Arizona moved past their forgotten dinner and into the kitchen, the open room offering them a lot of space, both physically and emotionally. "You thought that I'd be waiting for you for three years. Three years!"

Three years, and she'd only been gone sixty four days. Arizona hadn't expected three years, hell, she hadn't even expected three seconds, but she'd had hope. "I'd hoped, but I never-"

Calliope cut her off, "Hoped? You left me. In an airport. A crowded, full of people airport." Her voice rising with each word, her body moving a little closer with small steps.

"You didn't want to go!" Finally Arizona gave into the anger that was filling her entire body.

"I wanted you!" Callie shouted back, and instantly Arizona was back in that airport. Where, admittedly, she'd made the worst mistake of her life leaving Calliope, but the words were exactly the same as they had shouted at each other.

"Okay," she started, forcing calm into her voice, and using the inside version of it, not willing or able to repeat that screaming match. "We've had this conversation before."

"I know." Callie still seemed willing, and able, to yell, "When you left me in the airport."

Arizona sighed in frustration and moved towards the door. "Okay," she said, feeling the defeat all over her body "I can't have this conversation again." She was just about to reach for the door handle, tears about to fall, when Calliope was at her side, voice calm and devoid of the rage that it had held earlier.

"No." The taller woman started and blocked the door. "You don't get to leave again."

"What?" Arizona asked, confusion and anger filling her, the first few tears falling.

"This, the leaving, has to stop." Callie sighed, and gestured towards the couch. "You are going to sit down and listen to me yell."

Arizona did as she was told, moving towards the couch, she asked "Why?" Refusing to sit, trying to regain some footing in this conversation which had lost all means of volume, and was once again two people just talking. Talking in strangled, tear infested voices, but at least they weren't yelling.

"Because it's my turn to leave." Arizona was lucky she was by the couch. Her knees gave out at Calliope's words, and a few more tears spilled out of her eyes.

"So leave."She whispered, knowing that it would serve her right, watching Callie walk away would be the worst possible thing in the world.

"No," Callie came into the living room and sat on the chair, as far away sitting as she could get in this small room. "because this is how we got here. The yelling, the leaving, it has to stop."

Arizona was blown away. "Calliope."

"I don't wanna leave you Arizona." Callie paused, wiping away her own tears and Arizona's heart lurched for her, and her body wanted to reach out and comfort her. "I love you."

Arizona fell back against the cushions, stunned by her admission. It wasn't the oddest place Callie had said the words, but she stared, dumbfounded, unable to form a response.

"What?" Callie asked, confusion lining her features as her face was turned to Arizona, who still sat speechless.

Swallowing, Arizona tried a few times to find her voice, but stopped. Taking a deep, shaky breath she found her voice and admitted, "I just... wasn't expecting you to say that."

Callie laughed once and asked "Why not?"

"All the yelling."

[GA][GA][GA][GA][GA][GA][GA]

Callie sighed. This night had not gone at all the way she had planned. They were supposed to be laughing, having a good time, maybe finally getting the kiss that she had wanted for so long, so long that she had lost track of how long that she wanted to reclaim the lips that had once been hers.

Sighing again, she acknowledged Arizona's words with a nod, she added "Sorry, I just... am passionate." She knew that there was more, she was passionate about Arizona. "About you."

"Seriously," Callie looked over at Arizona, finding the blue eyes she loved so much looking at her. "I'm so sorry." All of a sudden, Callie missed the perky quality that she could normally hear.

Sighing again, Callie moved to the same couch as Arizona and sat beside her. Callie couldn't handle being in the same room as her and not being able to reach out and touch her, and now that they were doing real talking and not freaking-out yelling, she may actually get to touch her again.

"Stop apologizing," she asked. Quickly adding, "Please."

"Sorry?" The blond asked softly, confusion wrinkling her brow, and Callie yearned to reach over and soothe away the worry and tension that she could see over Arizona's body.

"Yes, that," She soothed, ignoring the question. "Stop doing it."

"Okay, uhh... okay. Why?" The blond stammered, a sound that Callie loved. But she was tired of this constant back and forth between them. Arizona seemed to think that she was the only one who had done wrong in their relationship. While privately she would like agree, she knew that she hadn't been exactly the best girlfriend ever.

"Because you're not the only one at fault here." She supplied easily, watching the emotions cross and leave her face as Arizona suppressed a small smile that still managed to turn up the corners of her mouth,

"Umm..." Arizona started, with her small smile and a light coming back into her eye.

"You can say it." Callie offered again, her own smile breaking through. Drying her tears, Callie watched as Arizona tried to form words.

"I know that we both screwed up." Arizona started, and Callie felt herself agree instantly.

"Yes we did." She saw Arizona dry her own tears and a pang of longing came over her, wanting to hold the smaller woman in her arms, feel safe the way she knew that she would if they truly let themselves be open and honest with each other.

"I just feel like my transgressions are worse." The blond answered honestly, and offering herself to once again be the bad guy.

"While I'd like to agree with you, they're not, it takes two to tango," she wiggled her fingers in what she hoped was a sexy way, "it also takes two to kiss that tango's ass."

They shared a laugh, and Callie felt her heart soar, and her spirit lift as Arizona placed a soft hand on her arm. Callie felt her mind instantly flash back to their almost kiss this morning, but it was gone as Arizona broke the moment with words on a laugh. "This is so odd."

"What?" She asked, saddened that the warm hand that had been on her arm was removed, and delighted that at the same time Arizona turned her body and their knees were touching.

"Us talking." She answered, and Callie sighed in relief as Arizona's hand once again found its way to her forearm, and gave her a small squeeze. Callie shivered at the chills that sped up and down her spine, dripping her entire body in desire.

"I know." Callie pushed out, words escaping her at the moment. "Normally it's yell, yell, yell, yell, leave, crazy man with a gun, yell, yell, yell."

"We do yell a lot," Arizona agreed, her hand slowly moving up and down her forearm, once again Callie felt a roll of shivers pour down her spine, and spread through her entire body.

"So let's talk." She said, glad that their evening was returning to the thing it was supposed to me. A good time, a time for them to touch, to laugh, to maybe finally communicate, instead of just converse.

"About what?" Arizona asked, her body sliding a little closer.

"I'm sorry." She emphasized her first words, possibly the first time she's ever said them to her.

"For what?" Arizona, the perpetually forgiving type, looked at her with confusion, and Callie sighed, thinking of all the things that she had done wrong this entire relationship.

"For pushing babies," She started, though that was gone and forgotten, "I knew I pushed too hard, too fast, too much." Callie paused and took a breath. "For that number on my hand, for not being supportive, for being so passive aggressive..." Through her words, Callie watched as Arizona got up from the couch and went and leaned against the counter, her body facing the living room, and tears clouding her deep blue eyes.

"I forgive you." She whispered from the kitchen, interrupting Callie's apology.

"I'm not done." Callie offered, standing and moving towards the kitchen herself, following where Arizona would go, an action whos significance was not lost on Callie.

"Sorry. No, sorry, ugg..." Callie laughed as the blond sighed, once again stumbling over her words. "Just... go on."

"The thing I'm most sorry for," she paused, not sure if she should reveal so much. Callie knew that had she gone to Africa initially, they would have been over. They wouldn't have made it the sixty four days it took Arizona to come back, but that was initially. "Sorry, for not coming after you."

Callie moved closer to Arizona, leant against the counter as well, the need to hold Arizona so overwhelming that she had to at least be within touching distance.

"Calliope." Callie heard her name on a whisper, and almost at the same time, the two woman bent forward at the same time, as if their movements were preordained from some frantic higher power who was determined to torture them, and rested against each other, foreheads meeting and hair tangling where it hung loosely.

Callie let her eyelids flutter closed, the feel of Arizona's breath playing across her lips and skin, the distinct scent of Arizona filling her nostrils. She had identified easily with what Arizona had said about her smell, it was one of the things she missed most. Missed it so much that she had taken an old shirt that Arizona had left in her locker at the hospital and taken it to bed with her those first few nights, just so she could get to sleep. The citrusy, and for lack of a better word, happy, smell that was distinctly Arizona.

She could smell it. She could feel her pulse race, could feel the electricity flowing through her body, could feel where Arizona's hand had reached across the counter and ran her soft feather light touches across her bare upper arm. She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, feeling her entire body humming with anticipation.

The moment raged on until Callie couldn't handle it anymore, and despite lack of communication about where they were as a couple, she bent her head forward and kissed Arizona.

Her world stopped. Everything outside of this moment ceased to exist for Callie as she could only feel the soft, familiar lips on hers. Moving in a chaste rhythm that had long ago been established. All that she could feel was Arizona's arm on hers, her lips on hers, and the incessant need to get closer to Arizona.

Deepening the kiss, Callie ran her tongue along Arizona's bottom lip, loving the way she was granted immediate access and the speed at which her movements where reciprocated. Stepping around the corner of the counter, Callie wrapped her arms around Arizona, pulling the smaller woman's body flush with her own, their kiss changing from something that was familiar to something that was completely new.

Then, just as she was starting to heat up, Arizona was gone from her lips, and her arms and Callie mourned the loss of the warmth and lips of the blond as she moved away. There were no words, for what she was feeling, and nothing she could ever do or say could ever describe the way that Arizona was looking at her right now.

Longing, desire, lust where all there, clouded by love, and something that looked an awful lot like fear. Her lips were swollen and pink from their kiss, but her face only held panic. Callie could see the blush on her cheeks, and the flush of her skin on the milky skin that she loved so intently.

"I'm sorry." The whisper reached Callie's ears, and she almost couldn't believe what was happening as she watched Arizona back out of the room. "I can't... we can't."

So stunned, was Callie, by this instant turnaround that her mind couldn't even comprehend what was happening as Arizona opened the door and took a step out, whispering with tears in her eyes, "I love you too." Before she was gone with soft, almost silent, shutting of the door.

* * *

_Awesome Possum points go to A. Windosr, fo guessing the title of this chapter. _


	5. Side Step

_So, first off I want to apologize for what had been undoubtedly, the worst chapter ever, that last one. I promise you, Arizona had a good reason for walking away. It will al be explained, good things come to those who wait, so, please, just be patient. The next thing I want to apologize for is the shortness of this chapter, you'll understand once you read it, but it's just shorter than I would have likes, but I got out all that I wanted to with it, and it serves it's purpose well. You, the lovely readers, will of course be the judge of that. And then the last thing I need to apologize for, that I know of, is that this, this is not the chapter that you want. You are going to hate me after thism hate me so bad that you don't want to read anymore. I making this entirely to cryptic, aren't I? So here's the skinny, this is important to the story. So we need it. I love you guys, just... be warned._

* * *

Mark Sloan had a plan. A determinedly, masterfully, genius plan. It was an epic plan, the plan to end all plans... it was brilliant. And he would call it... 'Operation get Callie and Blondie back together.'

Okay, so the name needed work, he would love, absolutely love, to call it 'Operation Panty Raid', which had no bearing whatsoever on the actual details of the plan itself, but he doubted that anyone besides himself would appreciate, so OGCABBT it was.

Now all Mark Sloan needed, was a right hand man. Or woman... since Shepherd and Hunt were busy being all married and happy, and had wives that would probably but in and ruin his master plan. Bailey was all googlie eyed over some anaesthesiologist who would most likely say that doping them up and locking them in the same room would be the best fix... that actually wasn't a bad idea, but hardly the romance he had planned.

Lexie couldn't do it, he'd just want to kiss her, and then the plan wouldn't come to fruition... which left... Altman. Awkward.

But, he was a man with a plan, and a man with a plan needs a right hand woman. Though, who better to fix two broken hearts than the head of cardio.

Yep, Mark Sloan had a plan. Now all he had to do was get Altman, who happened to be Blondie's BFF. Whipping out his cell phone he texted the once familiar number, and headed off towards the cardio ward and got ready to put his plan into action.

The plan, would work, because seeing his BFF so heartbroken would not do well, and to be honest she was kind of putting a damper on his blossoming relationship with Little Grey, he needed Callie to be happy for him, so he could be happy for her, so they could be happy together. He needed her to stop brooding about Blondie so they could bond in happy bliss.

[GA]

Teddy Altman stood at the fourth floor nurses station, waiting for Sloan to come explain the cryptic 'I have a plan' text. She never really understood the man, and she doubted she ever really would. Not that it mattered anymore, he was an enigma, and annoying enigma, but never the less she was intrigued.

Though from her vantage point, a place specifically specified by the man in a second text, she thought she might be able to guess what his plan was. Arizona had been back for over a month now, and besides all the gooey eyes, and longing glances, and the once happy face as she left an on-call room, her friend had been obviously less perky and happy and less all rainbows and butterflies, more doom and gloom.

She'd even helped the Paediatric surgeon on a surgery, and the usual butterfly scrub-cap was missing, and the curly blond hair was covered by the generic navy blue cap, and Teddy was so concerned she even offered the blond one of her own scrub caps, which she had never done before. And would probably never do again.

But now she was smiling, looking down at young Henry Green and his three casts, and his heart murmur, but there was something missing from her face, and Teddy couldn't put her finger on it. She thought it might be the glint in her eyes as she smiled, or the way that the smile seemed to falter every few seconds, or the way that when young Mr Green asked when the bone doctor would be coming back, her deep blue eyes darted to the door and she breathed a sigh of relief that said doctor wasn't in the room.

Nope, Teddy couldn't but her finger on it.

"So they are back to avoiding each other." She jumped as Mark's voice whispered in her ear, and she turned to face him, taking her eyes off of Arizona and her somewhat sad smile, as she turned and face the man and his annoyingness.

"Unfortunately." Teddy replied, seeing that his gaze had left hers and was resting on Arizona. He could see the compassion in his eyes, but it was sharing the blue orbs with something else, something that looked a lot like anger. As the best friends on opposing sides of this relationship they were socially bound to hate each other if it was off, and duty bound to help when they thought there might be a fighting chance, and Teddy, well she believed in fighting chances.

She practised medicine in the war for eight years, fighting chances were all she used to see, and has now become her mantra. Every person had a fighting chance, even if they are beyond hope and all manner of medicine, she believed that if they fought for it, they could do it. Naive and childish though it might be her recent marriage and husband proved that if someone wanted something bad enough, there were always ways to make it happen.

"It's odd you know." He said, both of their gazes still trained on the blond surgeon who was now laughing with the young boy as she signed the cast on his left leg, probably drawing some cartoonish animal that would no doubt be laughing, or smiling or something even sillier that the boy would love.

"What do you mean?" She asked, tearing her gaze away from the room and towards Mark.

"I interrupted them the other day, they were about to kiss." She smacked him in the arm, and he had the good sense to look offended, but with a smile.

"You did what?" She hissed at him, jumping to the defence of her best friend. Kissing was important, kissing is what made the world go round. Sure there was sex, god she missed sex, and kissing, but kissing was the music that made love go round. How he could interrupt that was beyond her.

"I didn't do it on purpose." He said, somewhat scandalized, but with a telltale grin that she couldn't help but reciprocate. Then at the same time both of their eyes moved back to the room where they could hear giggles and laughter floating out to them. "It was after the Stark fiasco, and one of the nurses said that Torres needed stitches, and the girl is hot so I figured that she would want me to do them, and the quicker they get done the better chance of healing without a scar, so I found them." He took a deep breath, and Teddy wondered why Arizona hadn't told her any of this.

"It was an accident, honest. But there they were, inches away from a lip lock." He sighed, a faraway look on his face. "I beat it quicker than Michael Jackson, but I dunno."

He sighed, and looked at Arizona, a sad look on his face.

"That's when the avoiding started again, didn't it?" She asked, she didn't blame him anymore, but she was still a little peeved at him.

He just shrugged, and at that second Callie came around the corner, all smiles and sadness, and stopped the instant she saw that Arizona was in the room with Henry. Mark quickly pulled her under the counter.

"Whoa!" She yelled, only to have his finger placed over her mouth and a silent 'shh' thrown at her. "Sorry." She whispered around his finger. Then pushing it away, she whispered again, "What the hell was that?"

Instead of talking, he just did some comical miming and then when he saw that she wasn't getting, what she was sure was the Yankee's code for steal third base, he just pointed up and they moved slowly, and only just enough to peek above the counter.

Mark waved away the nurse that was giving them an odd look, and she rolled her eyes at him, walking away shaking her head. From here, albeit a little less viable, they could still see Callie. Now though, instead of a smile, she had her face in her hands and was leaning against the wall outside Henry's room. She looked defeated, and her posture gave it away.

"What's the plan?" She whispered, but was once again met with only a silent stare, and gestured back to the couple, who were both now in the hallway.

Teddy's heart squeezed at the awkward moment that was slowly filling the entire hallway with the awkwardness that was visibly flowing of the two of them. Teddy watched in raptured silence as they looked at each other, then looked away, looked back, and ran fingers awkwardly through hair, as they slowly inched away from each other.

"Dr. Robbins." Callie said, and from twenty feet away, and under a counter feeling like an idiot, she could feel the pain and longing in the Latina's voice.

"Dr. Torres." Teddy felt Mark wince at the formality in Arizona's voice, and she was suddenly filled with compassion for this man, who was possibly the most annoying man in the world, but in this moment she was fonder of him now than she's been in the entire time she's known him.

Then they parted ways, and Callie entered Henry's room, Teddy was pulled under the counter. She sat cross legged on the ground, under the counter and sighed with Mark, as he sat there shaking his head.

"So this plan you have, wanna tell me about it?" She asked, still whispering, feeling that their covert position on the floor deserved some measure of secrecy.

"I wanna get Torres and Robbins back together." He whispered back, a faraway look on his face.

"I assumed as much." She started, watching the legs and gurneys roll by them, the two of them lost in their own private little world, lost from the world of surgery and heartache under the counter. "How are we gonna do it?" She asked, hoping that whatever he had come up with, it would work.

"We are going to show them that they belong together, that they need to be together, and not just for them, but for all of us." He said, and once again Teddy was blown away by the compassion that she heard in his voice.

"What do you need me to do?" She asked, hoping that her involvement wouldn't ruin her friendship with Arizona should this plan go sour, which it might because it was the brain child of Mark Sloan, who she was sure didn't have a romantic bone in his body. Maybe Little Grey was good for him.

"First," he started in a normal voice, standing up. "You need to get Hunt, and his guitar on our side." He offered her his hand, and she took it and allowed him to pull her up. They took one last glance at Callie in Henry's room and Teddy noted the same sad smile on her face that Arizona had been wearing only minutes previously. "Then, we go all John Hughes and romantic and cliché and corny."

"Dude," she asked, with a smile on her face, mirroring the glint on his own face. "You are seriously going to go all 80's teen movie on me?"

"Yep, Altman. And you're gonna love it."

Teddy wasn't so sure.

[GA]

"Tell me again," Owen Hunt started, confusion lining his voice, and mind as he was handed his guitar, and looking at his best friend. "What, exactly it is that I'm doing."

Teddy just sighed as they made their way to the play room of the Paediatric wing. He watched as her eyes darted here and there around every corner, watching for something he was completely unaware of.

"You," She started, holding her hand up to stop him from moving around the corner, "Are going to teach the kids how to sing a song, a romantic song, so that they can sing it to Arizona and Callie, so that OGTABBT, can be accomplished."

"'OGTABBT'?" He asked, more confusion lining his face as he was thrown around a corner, and pressed flat against a wall.

Teddy's hand was placed over his mouth muffling the last few letters as he saw Arizona walk around the corner, smiling and chatting with one of the nurses. "Operation get Torres and Blondie back together." She whispered, grabbing the front of his scrubs and violently pulling him around the corner and onwards towards the play room again.

He didn't even want to ask who's harebrained scheme this was, or the title of the operation, but he was sure he could guess as he only knew of one person that called Dr. Robbins, 'Blondie'.

Once they reached their destination twenty or so pair's of kids eyes turned to look at the pair of them, smiles spreading cheeks as they looked at the guitar in his hands, "What?" He asked, a little scared of the kids who were suddenly staring at him.

"You have twenty minutes, maybe more, while I take Arizona out, like way out, for some coffee." She said, looking over his shoulder out the multitude of windows in the play room. "Something happy. This is going to be Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospitals Christmas miracle."

And with that, Teddy was gone, slinking down the corridor as if Tom Cruise and his impossible missions depended on her sneaking away without being noticed.

He turned to the group of kids that had slowly gathered around him, and were all looking up at him expectantly, smiles on their faces.

"Hi." Was all he could think of to say.

"Hi!" They all said to him, and he took a step back, but the kids just followed him.

"Did she say 'Christmas Miracle'?" One little bright eyed boy asked, a mischievous grin on his face. "Dude, it's like January, Christmas is over."

"Right." He said, moving to one of the ridiculously small plastic chairs that filled the room, the kids still following him. "Could you sit down please, we are going to learn a song." He asked them a little awkwardly, surprised that they actually listened. There were nurses in the room, watching the kids, waiting, but now most of them were smiling at him, they too had funny looks on their faces.

"Dude," the same boy started from the back of the semi-circle, "What kind of Christmas miracle are we talking about in January?"

"Dude," Owen mocked, swinging the guitar into his lap and strumming the first few chords of a scale for the only romantically Christmas song that he could think of, and it was the only one because he'd seen it in a movie that he'd been forced to watch. "Christmas miracles are for all year, just chill out."

A round of snickers rose from the group and the insolent boy was silenced and turned his gaze downward.

"So, who here loves Dr Robbins?" He asked to a loud chorus of cheers and 'me's'. All of the kids smiling at him instantly, and even a few of the nurses raising their hands.

"Dr Robbins is sad," he started, and looking pointedly at the one boy who kept calling him dude, "So we are gonna sing her, and Dr Torres, a song, a Christmas miracle song so that they can be happy together again."

A round of smiles and cheers went up again, and all the kids crowded a little closer to him, and he smiled hoping that whatever happened because of this, wouldn't be the end of him.

* * *

_Again, I'm so sorry it didn't have any Callie/Arizona in it, or that much. But that's all coming up. Love you guys. Oh, and thank you for all the wonderful reviews, you guys are fantastic about doing that, and you've all said such nice things, I'm gonna do a few shout outs in the next chapter or two, which will probably be the last of this little story, but for now, thank you to every one. You are all fantastic._


	6. The Next Step

_Hey party people. Me, again, once again I would like to thank all of you who are reading this. When I started with 'Tiny Human Steps' I was writing for myself. That was something I wanted to see, and read, and so I had to do it. But now, with this continuation it has turned into something so much more, and that's thanks to you guys. I've decided that there will be another chapter, an epiloque of sorts, and I hope that you'll stay with me for that as well. Thanks again every one._

_Happy hunting, rawpotato._

"What is it now?" Arizona accidentally snapped at one of her favourite nurses. She'd been doing that a lot lately, snapping at the wrong people. Running her hand through her hair, she took a deep breath and looked at the shocked young nurse who looked frightened and intimidated.

"The scans... you asked for. Henry Green." The young redhead's words came out jilted and terror filled, and Arizona instantly filled with regret at her actions, the redhead wasn't who she wanted to snap at, and she needed to apologise.

"I'm sorry," she started, and took another deep breath, pausing to push down the self loathing that always boiled up when she was in this mood. "Jane. I just... am having a bad day." Understatement. She was having a bad week, month, heck the whole year might just end up being a write-off.

"It's okay Dr Robbins." Jane looked thoroughly relieved that she was no longer being yelled at, and Arizona once again felt bad for her outburst. Taking the file from the other woman, who made a hasty retreat, Arizona pulled out the scans and looked at them, the first good feeling she'd had in a while filling her. Henry still didn't have cancer. That fight had been won, but the young man was still in the hospital with a new heart problem that her best friend was going to fix.

Her best friend that she had been avoiding for the past few days. Also the same best friend that had tried and tried to talk to her, but whos advances had been met with nothing but resistance. Arizona was kind of a crummy friend at the moment.

Since she'd run out of Calliope's apartment after the soul changing, life altering, desire inducing kiss they had shared, Arizona hadn't been able to fully function properly. The kiss had rocked her world, both in the sense that she was elated to finally be back in Calliope's arms, but also because it opened her eyes to some major truths that she had been too afraid to admit to herself.

Shocked out of her private reprieve, she heard the dulcet tones of Mark Sloan, whom she was now back to hating, shared sushi aside, coming towards her, scaring her into running away again.

She was also avoiding Mark Sloan.

Not that was anything particularly new about their relationship, but they had shared a few nice moments over the past four weeks, and then she'd kissed Calliope and he was once again the enemy.

Stuffing the film back into its folder she was just about to escape from the nurses' station when her day was effectively ruined by one single word. "Blondie!" It wasn't anger filled, or scathing, it sounded like he was genuinely glad to see her, a sentiment that she could say was not replicated in herself, as all she could feel was the vice like grip of imprisonment settle upon her.

She really needed to stop watching _Prison Break_ reruns.

Stepping around the corner she hoped that he wouldn't follow her, but she realised too late that she should have learned by now that when it came to Mark Sloan, hope and avoidance rarely wielded a positive result when used in the same sentence.

"Blondie, there you are." He said coming around the corner, navy blue scrub cap on his head, and what she was sure he thought his most charming smile on his face. "I've been looking everywhere for you."

Sighing once again, an act she seemed to be doing a lot of these days, she looked up into his blue eyes and felt saddened by him. She had already forgiven Calliope for sleeping with him, she'd even worked herself hard into not holding a grudge against him, but now it was all she saw as she looked at him. With her last leave taking, she was sure that she had lost all of her chances with Calliope, and seeing him would just reinforce was she had lost.

Little Grey or no Little Grey, Mark Sloan would always be a bad omen.

"Of course you have, and now that you've found me," She pushed off from the wall and pointed down the hall in the general direction her office, "I'll be going."

She took off without a backwards glance, and was dismayed that he hadn't taken the hint and left her alone. His presence, though in an odd way, comforting, just made her miss Calliope. The two were joined at the hip when they were both in the hospital, seeing him without her wasn't right.

Just like imaging her life without the Latina, but it was a picture she may just have to get used to. _People you can't live without, but have to let go. _The lines from some TV show filtering through her head.

"Hey, wait up." He said, keeping pace with her.

Now she was getting mad, once again her anger directed at the wrong person, however much he deserved her wrath. "I hate you, you know that right?"

She knew she'd overstepped when a hurt look crossed his features, his charming smile faltering a little. Now she felt bad for Mark Sloan, there was something very, very wrong with her. Just as she was about to offer and apology, he spoke up.

"I know." She was floored at his words, and the candour behind them. Though he still had a smile in place, it wasn't the winning, usual gleam that he normally wore, it was one of understanding and compassion. "I just wanted to talk to you." Now it was his turn to run his fingers through his hair. Removing his scrub cap, he wrung the garment in his large hands, looking like someone had just kicked his puppy.

"Sorry." He said after what appeared to be a great internal debate. Then without another word, he turned and walked away, shocking Arizona even more.

Against her better judgement, also out of some deep rooted need to gain everyone's approval, she took a few steps, now following him, and called out. "Mark. Wait, please." He stopped and looked at her, the hurt look on his face still evident, though the sad smile now gone.

"I'm..." She hesitated, gathering herself and tucking her files closer to her chest, she looked him in the eye again, and tried to convey the depth of her words with the small smile she offered him. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"Yes you should have." He started, staring off down the hallway, breaking their eye contact and looking out the window at the rain that was blanketing Seattle in silence and an eerie calm. "You should have if it's true."

It wasn't all true, she had really just wanted him to leave her alone, and that was the first thing she could think of doing. Though judging by where she was now, and the current state of her life in general, making decisions on a whim was not her thing, by any stretch. "It's not." She tried to inject conviction into her voice, and push away all the bad feelings she'd ever had for him.

"Sure it is. I'd hate me too Arizona, if I did what I did to me... you know?" She really didn't, but she could see where he was going with that.

Shaking her head, she offered him a real smile, and patted him on the forearm, images of the way he'd comforted her a few days ago filtering through her mind. "What was it you wanted to say?" She asked, curiosity now getting the best of her.

"Kind of what we'd just said." He responded in a happy voice, his lady killer smile back in place. "That I'm sorry, for, well everything."

She knew what everything was, and she held up her hand to stop him from continuing to describe all of his transgressions, and interruptions into her life.

"I'm not going to say that it's okay, because it's not." She stopped to give him her best authoritative stare, but realized that he would probably just laugh at her if she tried to Bailey Stare him down. "But I know that you and Calliope, well you're each other's people, I get that. But honestly, I don't think it really matters anymore." She wiped away the single tear that had built up in her eye as she spoke, and hoped that Mark hadn't noticed it.

"I was kind of hoping that you'd have lunch with me, well me and Lexie." Once again, Arizona was rendered speechless. Mark had never once instigated their communication. Callie had always been there, or a patient, or one of their many mutual friends, but never had he invited her anywhere. So shocked was she by his request, he must have assumed that her silence was her agreement as he smiled once again and stuffed the now twisted scrub cap in his pocket. "Great!" He said a little too enthusiastically and for some strange reason she felt an odd sense of foreboding befall her.

Mark only looked gleeful when he was plotting. She was afraid of Mark's plots.

"Come on Blondie." He shouted, the tone in his voice matching the same gleeful look on his face, and Arizona knew that agreeing, or rather failing to decline, to his offer, had been a very bad move.

After placing her files in her office, she followed Mark through the hospital, astounded at the number of people who seemed happy to see him. The man must have gotten fifteen high fives, a few more seductive smiles and Arizona was certain she saw a nurse blow him a kiss. Whether he saw it or not made little to no consequence, as Arizona suddenly felt like a celebrity stalker as she followed him and the dazed crowds got silent and pointy as she passed behind him.

It was at the entrance to the cafeteria that she knew he was up to something, she could hear Teddy talking in what seemed a soothing voice, and the panic that she normally felt at seeing her best friend flared up, stuttering her step, but suddenly Mark was behind her and gently, or rather not-so, guiding her into the small hallway.

The closer she got, the more her doomed feeling grew, and as she rounded the corner she knew why. Calliope.

"What's that Blondie?" Mark asked beside her ear, and Arizona felt her cheeks redden as she must have whispered the beautiful woman's name as she'd seen her. Once again, seeing her was like a breath of fresh air, but Arizona couldn't feel the same rush because all of her mind, and heart, screamed at her to run away. Run from the woman, and the man she once again hated, and her so-called best friend who seemed to be smiling at the awful situation Arizona found herself in.

"Oh for the love of god." She heard Callie whisper and roll her eyes as she turned away, and instantly Arizona started to call out for her. But she was able to stop herself at the hand raising and the words never made it out of her mouth.

But Callie hadn't gone anywhere as Teddy had blocked her path. "No." She heard her best friend say, holding her arms open and sidestepping Callie, in what seemed a dance to keep her in the hall. "You are going to stay and talk."

Arizona looked over her shoulder at Mark, Mark who was grinning from ear to ear and blocking her exit the same as Teddy blocked Callie's. She pointed over his shoulder in what she hoped was a winning way, but he just shook his head and nodded towards the other pair of surgeons, both of whom were now looking at her. "Please Mark," she whispered over her shoulder.

"Oh sure," Callie's voice filled the hall, and Arizona winced at the anger and hurt she could hear in the voice that normally brought sunshine and happiness to mind. "Run away again."

"That's not fair." Arizona threw back, no anger or condensation in her voice, she could never be mad at Callie.

"Why isn't it fair? You're trying to leave. Again." Callie's voice still held its anger, and Arizona recognised something else. The same thing that had been clouding her heart for the last four days, which was the real reason she was so angry all the time, the reason that she was only angry at herself because what she felt was defeat. She never felt defeated, not even when Callie had closed the door in her face, her heart no matter how deep down, had never given up the battle for Callie, but now, now she knew that defeat was just around the corner.

She was a surgeon. She faced defeat, and won almost every day, never had she allowed the emotion into her heart, but seeing Callie, hearing the same tone of defeat in her voice, Arizona knew that fighting the losing battle with Callie would kill her.

"No." She said. She wasn't trying to leave. She was trying to protect herself from even greater hurt.

"No?" Callie practically yelled, and Arizona watched as Teddy's eyebrows rose over the Latina's shoulder, and her own shoulders shrug as she and Mark were obviously communicating silently about them. "What do you mean 'no'? You just asked him to let you leave."

"This hurts too much." She responded, the words slipping from her mouth before she could stop them, and she saw Callie falter, something in her deep, soulful brown eyes conveying an understanding to Arizona.

"What?" Now Callie's voice was devoid of volume and anger, and just held the defeated tone.

"This." Arizona gestured between the two of them. "Being so close, yet not being together." She felt the tears well up in her eyes, and wrapped her arms around herself, trying in vain to hold herself together. "It's killing me." Not entirely a metaphor.

"So go." Callie offered, her entire body slumped forward like she was about to give up.

"I can't." Arizona replied, looking at her shoes, afraid to see anything in Callie's, or Teddy's eyes.

"Why not?" And they were back to the yelling.

"Because you told me not to." She responded easily.

"That didn't stop you from running out on me." Callie shouted back, her body suddenly tense and no longer slumped forward. If Arizona hadn't been in such a dire situation, she would have made a joke about Callie slipping into her Spanish rant, and almost as soon as she'd thought the thought, she heard Mark breath, so low Arizona knew she wasn't meant to hear it. "At least she's still speaking English."

But, all joking aside, now she was angry. "I was scared!" She yelled for the first time, stunning Callie mid pace, and Teddy's arms faltered in their pose, dropping a few inches, once again communicating silently with Mark.

Though no one else said anything after, the silence got to be too much for Arizona, who started her own pacing, and continued yelling. "I was scared okay. I was petrified, terrified... and any other kind of 'fied' you could be.

"We were kissing, kissing like nothing had ever happened and then I couldn't breathe." Arizona felt more than saw Mark lower his arms and step around her as she continued her rant. "At first it was because of the kissing," as she was talking memories of that moment made themselves know on her mind and her lips, but she ignored the longing for another kiss. "And then I just couldn't breathe.

"I love you. I love you more with each passing second, more than I thought possible, and I'm scared. Scared of how much I need you, how much my happiness depends on you. Scared because when you kissed me, when you KISS me, my whole world is you." She paused to take a breath. Callie looked as if she was going to say something, but Arizona wasn't done, and she also didn't notice that they were now alone in the hallway.

"We've broken up and gone our separate ways twice, and each time I had no choice but to come back to you. No choice, and all the mistakes we've made, all the mistakes we will make, they scare me. Scare me so much I can't breathe. I can't leave you again. We can't break up again, it would destroy me." It was destroying her, Arizona had felt the little pieces of herself slip away every moment that she was apart from the woman who was now only a few feet away.

"So before I need you, need you so much that leaving again would kill me, I left." She paused, taking a deep breath. Her words had ceased to be yells, and more desperate pleading, pleas that Callie understand, that she would know that Arizona would still love her, love her until the day she died. "Because I can't handle losing you."

"But you won't." Callie simply stated, knocking the wind and the words right out of Arizona's chest.

The only words she could think of to say came out on a strangled whisper, her tears once again taking over, "You don't know that." They were surgeons, doctors, had lived through hell and a shooting together, they knew the odds of life, and they knew the chances of a crazy gunman entering the room without any notice. They both knew.

"No," Callie agreed instantly, "You're right." She seemed to be struggling for words, and Arizona stepped closer, Callie's whispers to low to be heard fully across the four feet that separated them. "But isn't being together, for however long we're supposed to be, enough?"

It should be. Because Arizona knew that if she'd known that the last time, before this last time, would be the last time she got to kiss Calliope, she would never have let it end. "But I'm scared." She whispered as Callie stepped closer.

"So am I."

[GA][GA][GA][GA][GA][GA]

Callie could see understanding and compassion form on Arizona's features, and after that rousing speech where Callie was stuck on the words 'I love you', she wanted nothing more than to take the blond into her arms and kiss her senseless. But she couldn't do that, couldn't because Arizona's words made too much sense to her.

Wouldn't it be better for them to part ways now, now when they could move on with life, rather than later on, with love and happiness surrounding them, making each other their life, and having that ripped away with no hope of ever moving on.

Callie wasn't so sure. She knew that if she had to, she could move on from this point in her life. Knew that it would take a few years, a long while to get over Arizona Robbins, every single suitor being compared to her would fail, but eventually she'd find someone, or be comfortable being single. But she knew that's all she'd ever be, is comfortable. She knew that she wanted one more day with Arizona, because one more day with her would be better than the rest of her life apart.

She knew that because when she looked at Arizona she didn't feel pain, or anger or any of the other things she's so wrongly shouted at her, and various other people, all she felt was love. She didn't know how to exist happily in the world where she and Arizona weren't together.

"Can we continue this conversation inside?" She asked her blond ex-lover, hoping that they could once again work on their first few tiny human steps to get back to being what they were. No, Callie thought, not what they were, something stronger, with a solid foundation built on mutual trust and respect and no fear of leaving. And the choice to live each day as if it could be the last, and still make plans for what they wanted for each other from tomorrow.

Arizona simply nodded, Callie stepped forward and opened the door for her, with a hope she hadn't felt in a long while.

Though that hope was instantly extinguished as she took in the cafeteria. No more was it the bland room where they ate lunch and spread gossip, it had been turned into what could only be described as the saddest winter wonderland she had ever seen.

Fake snow littered the windows, piles of glitter covered cotton balls were flung haphazardly over the entire room, her friends, all of her friends were standing about the room, smiles and happiness written over their faces. Derek and Meredith stood beside Charlie Browns Christmas tree, holding a string of lights and a string of popcorn in their hands decorating the sad little tree. Mark and Lexie stood hand in hand, Santa hats places at precarious angles on their heads, the same dopey smiles on their faces. Teddy sat farther back with her husband, sharing private, intimate looks with him as they too smiled at them.

Karev, Bailey and the Chief were standing by one of the fake fires, roasting what looked like awfully undercooked marshmallows, the rest of the residents were gathered around a group of kids who were all, residents, kids, nurses and Owen Hunt, wearing the most ridiculous assortment of holiday sweaters Callie had ever seen. Cristina was nowhere to be seen, but the thought was gone from her mind as she took in the look of awe and wonder on Arizona's face and she couldn't help but smile.

Arizona had reached out and took Callie's hand, still looking about the room with excitement on her face, about three dozen non-Christmas clad patients and hospital staff looking on, amused smiles on their faces. Callie was interrupted in her staring at their joined hands as one of the little boys was wheeled forward, and spoke. "We, the kids of the paediatric wing," Callie smiled at little Henry Green and the fact that Arizona had given her hand a squeeze as he'd started speaking, "Would like to dedicate this song to Dr. Robbins." Callie felt her love for Arizona swell at that, and wondered which of their adult friends had planned this, "And Dr Torres. We just ask that you dance."

Suddenly nervous at the request, Callie instantly turned to Arizona who was looking at her with such joy in her eyes that Callie couldn't refuse. Arizona would fly to the moon for her kids, and granting them, and by way her, this small request, would be Callie's pleasure. So they hadn't decided where they stood yet, where they were going to stand, however, was by the Christmas tree slash dance floor that had regulated several tables to the side of the room.

Just as Owen plucked the first few chords of the song, Callie used their entwined hands and led Arizona to the dance floor, feeling nothing but relief at having the smaller blond woman in her arms.

"_Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You Love Me All The Time  
Maybe I'm Afraid Of The Way I Love You  
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You Pulled Me Out Of Time  
And Hung Me On A Line  
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way I Really Need You"_

Callie sighed as Arizona rested her head on her shoulder, and the brunette pulled her closer, loving the feel of Arizona's warm breath playing on her neck, her hand rubbing small circles on her back. Callie closed her eyes as a piano joined Owens guitar and the kids and residents kept on singing, and when out of nowhere a banjo started up, and Callie couldn't help but grin.

This had to be the cheesiest, most cliché and utterly over used tactic in the book, but she couldn't muster the emotions to care, breathing in the deep scent of Arizona, and feeling every brush of their bodies as they swayed in time to the music.

_Maybe I'm A Girl And Maybe I'm A Lonely Girl  
Who's In The Middle Of Something  
That She Doesn't Really Understand_

It was then that Callie felt her own tears start to form in her eyes, it was the last line of the first verse that she felt Arizona's warm tears spread on her skin, feel the way that she was breathing deeply, and it was then that Callie knew that they would take today, and tomorrow, and however long it took for them to come back together, because nothing felt as right as this did right now, dancing in the hospital, the most unromantic place in the world, surrounded by their friends and family who had slowly started to drift out to join them dancing.

_Maybe I'm A Girl And Maybe You're The Only Woman  
Who Could Ever Help Me  
Baby Won't You Help Me Understand_

Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You're With Me All The Time  
Maybe I'm Afraid Of The Way I Leave You  
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You Help Me Sing My Song  
Right Me When I'm Wrong  
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way I Really Need You

Callie wanted nothing more than for this moment to never end, holding Arizona so close that their past was forgotten, and all that matter was this moment.

_Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You're With Me All The Time  
Maybe I'm Afraid Of The Way I Leave You  
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way You Help Me Sing My Song  
Right Me When I'm Wrong  
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way I Really Need You  
Maybe I'm Amazed At The Way I Really Need You_

When the song was done, people started clapping and cheering, but Callie couldn't move, transfixed as she was by the way they were still holding tight to her, and then once she opened her eyes to look at Arizona, the sight she saw was not the blond woman, or her endlessly blue eyes, it was her ex-roommate Cristina, holding a giant stick. Allowing her eyes to drift from where they wanted to be, and followed the line of the stick to where it stopped just above hers and Arizona's head. Dangling from the end was a brush of mistletoe and Callie suddenly knew whos plan this had been.

"Hey." She said, tilting her head down to speak in Arizona's ear. "Look up."

The blond looked up and Callie almost couldn't suppress the laugh that bubbled up inside her at the look on Arizona's face. "Mistletoe? Seriously?" She asked, her eye's too zeroing in on Mark who had the good sense to look abashed and raised his hands in a comical 'I'm not guilty' manner, as he bent forward and kissed Lexie, miming for them to do the same.

All around the room Callie looked, her friends watching them expectantly, smiles once again gracing their features. Finally, she looked to Cristina who smiled at them. "Just so you know, I vetoed the mistletoe. I'm Jewish. Kissing under poisonous flora is so not my thing." The words were said with a wink, and Callie couldn't help but laugh.

Finally allowing her gaze to rest on Arizona, she let a giggle escape her at the bemused expression on the blonds face and asked. "What do you say?" gesturing to the bough of green and red above her.

"I say," Arizona started and Callie held her breath, as Arizona's smile faltered. "If you kiss me now, I'll never leave again."

Callie sealed the deal with a kiss amid cheers and clapping, and Mark throwing more glitter covered cotton balls into the air, exclaiming. "It's a Christmas Miracle!"

"It's January." Arizona broke the kiss to say, but Callie just pulled her back for another, whatever kind of miracle it was, it was theirs and Callie wouldn't let semantics ruin her second first kiss with the woman who was the love of her life.

* * *

_Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that I went back and forth over the choice of song a least a dozen times, and I always I kept coming back to this. The song is 'Maybe I'm Amazed', originally sung by Paul McCartney. However it's not his version that I use here today, it's the amazing cover by Jem, as used in The OC. If you haven't heard it, you should look it up, oh and let me know if you think it fits as perfectly as I do._


	7. A Thousand Steps Later

_Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates christmas, and happy winter season to those of you who don't. I'm Canadian... gotta cover my bases. So, I heard 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' was repealed. Way to go United States military... and anyone who benefits from this. The world is changing people. Let's keep it up. _

_There will be a more inclusive authors note at the bottom. Please stick around a read it._

_Happy hunting to all... and to all a good night. rawpotato_

**"Life is too short to be spent on unrequited love." - Me.**

Silently, and non-explicitly, cursing the creaky floor board in the kitchen, Arizona tiptoed back to Callie's room, glass of water in hand. It had been several weeks, she couldn't be sure the clouds of bliss not prudent for accurate time keeping, since Mark and Teddy's Christmas miracle, and Arizona had spent almost every one of those nights in Callie's bed. Or an on call bed with Callie, which was pretty much the same thing.

Reaching her destination, she rested her tired body against the darkened door frame and looked in on Callie, who was still sleeping, her deep even breaths playing tag with a loose strand of hair that had slipped in front of her nose, covering one of her eyes. Arizona knew that she would tuck that strand of hair behind Callie's ear, allowing her fingers to caress the soft, smooth olive skin of the other woman as she climbed back into the bed.

Callie's bed. What used to be their bed, but was now firmly Callie's bed. Not that Arizona minded, this was one of the first steps that Callie had deemed important to setting their relationship on stronger foundations, not jumping right back to where they had been. She should say, not that she minded much. Because she did mind. She minded a lot, because it being Callie's bed, they, and they meaning Arizona, had to play by Callie's rules.

No sex.

God, her loins burned with desire thinking of the rule. The only rule regarding the bed. And of course it was the only rule that they had set down that Arizona wanted to break. She was raised by rules, she followed rules, rules were her life.

Sex was her life, especially sex with her Calliope, but nope, she would follow the rule, knowing that following the rule, and not just this rule, but all the rules would bring them the strong foundation they both wanted. Because Arizona knew that this was their life now.

Callie had always been her life, she knew that now, but she was more firmly aware of it.

In the past their relationship had started with a kiss shared between strangers in a dirty bar bathroom, not that Arizona minded it was that kiss that had brought her to this moment, but it was the kiss that had built their house upon the sand. It had held steady for a while until the rains which had been Africa, an irony that both Arizona and Callie had refused to verbalise when they created this metaphor for themselves, washed it away. They would build on a sound foundation, one that could stand the test of time, and last for their lives.

A strong foundation that would one day, hopefully very soon thought Arizona, include sex.

Taking a long sip of her water, the blond shook all sexy thoughts from her head and headed back to Callie's bed, where the woman whom she loved lay, resting peacefully.

Placing the half full glass on the night stand by her side of Callie's bed, she lifted the deep purple covers and slid beneath them, snuggling herself into Callie's back, kissing the exposed skin of the Latina's shoulder, while tucking the loose strand of hair behind an ear. Head resting on the pillow, face buried in the crook of Callie's neck, inhaling the cinnamon, vanilla, berry concoction that was singularly Calliope Torres, Arizona closed her eyes, breathing deep.

Arizona loved the way Callie's body reacted to her own, the Latina let out a sleep sigh as she pressed her body closer to Arizona, her back and thighs pressing fully against the blond who snaked her arm out and wrapped it around her lovers waist.

Arizona revelled in the fact that she was allowed to do this again, allowed to snuggle up to Callie and sleep with her, allowed to breathe in her smell, allowed to watch the brunette as she slept, allowed to smile at her in the hospital and be happy that she received a smile in return. Allowed to tell Calliope that she loved her, allowed to stare at the woman when she didn't know she was being watched.

Sighing, she pushed away the memories that floated through her head, and concentrated on this moment, creating a new memory to replace all the hurt and anger that had once ruled her heart. She and Callie were by no means perfect, nor were they anywhere near ready to be what they once were, but Arizona could feel their relationship getting stringer by the second, and it was because of moments like this, where she could smile freely and know that tomorrow, as she sat at her desk with nothing really pressing to do, she could think about it, and relive how happy and complete she felt.

Not wallow in self pity. Because she and Callie were working together to create a better future for themselves. And they had help. Help in the form of Mark Sloan and Teddy Altman, their best friends, friends who helped bring them back together, with the help of all their other friends. Sighing, Arizona thanked all of her lucky stars that she had these friends, and this woman.

Stilling her mind once again, she slipped her hand under the hem of Callie's shirt, spreading her palm flat against the warm skin of Callie's stomach, no more intentions than of just feeling more of her.

Well she can't say that all of her intentions were pure, because they weren't, even when they were together and happy, and allowed to have sex, she couldn't get enough of the brunette. Her body, the way she moved when they were in the throes of passion, they way that her body felt alive and sated by Callie, that Callie knew all the ways to make her moan and writhe... and she really had to stop thinking like that.

Back to the thinking of non-sex related things.

Sighing, and smiling, Arizona let her fingers trail lazily over the skin under her finger tips, tracing mindless patterns that she was sure if she had a pen would draw things like cute little hearts, and probably a silly animal cartoon thing. Things Callie would hate to have all over her skin. Smiling even wider she almost screamed as Callie's sleepy voice filled the silence of the room.

"Stop thinking about sex." Her voice was slurred from the sleep she was waking up from, and Arizona laughed once, a soft expel of breath and stilled her hand and once again pressed it flat against Callie's abdomen.

"I wasn't." She lied. Or at least she hadn't been at the time. She couldn't help it. Calliope was hot, but she couldn't say that out loud.

"Yes you were." Callie replied, a little less sleepy. Arizona felt Callie's hand cover hers, and entwine their fingers, effectively removing all feeling Arizona had over Calliope's stomach. Not that she minded, Callie's actions had drawn her closer and she loved the closer.

She was thinking about sex again.

"I said stop." Callie laughed as she turned over. They were now lying face to face; legs scrambled and heaped together, arms draped across each other, chests barley toughing, breath mingling, foreheads meeting. "Because if you don't," Arizona gulped a deep breath as a pregnant pause filled the space between them. "I'll start. And we have rules."

Frowning, Arizona tried to purge herself of the sexy thoughts and a let a deep breath go, unfortunately the sexy thoughts didn't go anywhere as Callie's finger found a way under her shirt, playing at the waist band of her fleece pants. "Self imposed rules." She breathed out, shifting her entire body closer, barely containing the gasp at the friction that was caused as her breasts were pressed more firmly into Callie's.

"We agreed." It was a small victory that Callie sounded as pained as Arizona felt, and not one worth celebrating as Callie tilted her face closer, bringing her lips within kissing distance.

Dragging in a ragged breath, Arizona melted at the feeling of warm breath on her lips. Thankfully kissing hadn't been outlawed, but Arizona also knew that her control wasn't what it should be. She was, for lack of a better word, horny, and all she wanted to do was take Calliope here and now, and probably somewhere else and later, if she kissed the warm, soft, luscious lips now... she'd never be able to stop.

"Is this a test?" She teased, not entirely a rhetorical question.

"I..." Callie paused, and Arizona slipped her hand under Callie's shirt. She really wanted to break the rules. "I don..." Callie paused again, shaking her head, and Arizona knew that they were both thinking about sex. Lots and lots and lots... of sex. "No."

She didn't know what that meant. But she was left little time to ponder as Callie quickly closed the space between their lips and kissed Arizona senseless. Arizona sighed at the contact, feeling all of her desire burst forth from the box she had stuffed it in, washed it to with cold showers, explode inside her stomach and spread her entire body, warmth filling her core and desire burning a fiery trail between her legs.

Sucking Callie's bottom lip between her own, she racked her teeth over the flesh and as Callie moaned, used the opportunity to plunge her tongue into the depths of Callie's mouth. They battled for dominance in this battle of passion, hands roaming and lips and tongues locked in a dance of epic proportions.

"Stop." Callie nearly yelled, yanking her head away. Arizona was too dazed and desire bogged down to care, her hands on Callie's naked flesh, precariously close to the perfect mounds that were Calliope's breasts.

Words had no meaning for her as Callie's hands were pulled, rather slowly thought Arizona, off her skin and gripped the blonds hands and pulled them away from their goal.

"We have to stop." Now Arizona was confused.

Well, only sort of. The rule was like a flashing neon light in her vision, and her body ached to be caressed by Calliope, her needs longed to be filled by the same woman, but it was her heart that yearned to be loved by her. And though her body yearned to be satisfied, her heart knew that it must wait until Calliope was ready. Making love was an action of trust, and Arizona wanted to be secure in trust before they took this step.

But those thoughts didn't diminish the longing to be satisfied any less than torture.

Resigning herself to another sex less night, gosh that sounded bad in her head, she put on a giant pout, flashing her dimples at Calliope she said in her best tease, "But why?"

Callie obviously wasn't buying it and smiled. "I want to, believe me." Arizona did. She had felt the passion flow of the Latina, could still feel the residual waves of it, through their clasped hands and the muddy brown eyes that were locked on hers. "But, I think we should wait."

Arizona did not agree, but she nodded her head anyway. "While I disagree," she started, another rule of complete honesty and communication making its presence known, "I will wait." She sighed, placing a soft, chaste, kiss on the lips she longed to ravish. "Because you are worth it."

"You bet your cute dimpled cheeks I am." Callie laughed instantly and Arizona melted at the other woman's humility. Arizona rolled away from Callie and moved to get out of bed, the second time in thirty minutes.

"Where are you going?" Callie asked from the bed, her brown eyes following Arizona as she stood from the bed and took a step away. Uncertainty lined her voice and Arizona quickly sat back down on the bed, covering the brunettes lips in another chaste kiss. When chaste is the last thing she wants to be.

"I know this is going to sound bad, believe me, I know it." She sighed, once again pulling away from Callie. The uncertainty was gone, and was replaced by the depths of love and desire that Arizona had to get away from if she were going to keep her word and wait. Because she loved Calliope she would let herself sound the sex crazed, hormone raged teenager as she stood, she looked down at Callie and smiled. "I have to go cool down. With a very cold shower." She stated honestly, and was surprised to see Callie laugh at her.

It was a sound she loved, and was immensely glad that she could evoke the smile from the Latina that melted her heart, and the laugh that would make an entire room laugh with her. "Go." Was Callie's response.

Moving towards the bathroom, she refused to look back as she knew her resolve would crumble if she did. "Arizona." She only stopped when Callie called her name in the darkness of the room.

"Yeah?" She asked turning back, allowing the love she felt spill in the one word.

"I love you." Callie whispered.

Smiling Arizona whispered back, "I love you too."

[GA][GA][GA][GA][GA][GA]

Callie watched as Arizona entered the bathroom and left the door slightly ajar. She couldn't stop the waves of love that crashed over her. She hadn't known anyone who would have willingly put off having sex after the make-out session they had just shared, and it struck Callie as wonderful that Arizona loved her enough to actually stop.

And the thought that the blond was in the shower right now trying to 'cool off' from the encounter was enough to fill Callie with even more love and admiration for the woman. Though Callie knew that Arizona knew that they were okay and trust wasn't an issue, Callie wanted to start this time different. Sex was important, yes, but it was the sex that usually filled the void where communication failed to connect a couple, and she didn't want something like sex to stop her relationship with Arizona from growing stronger.

And it's not that she didn't want sex, oh my god did she want sex, so very, very badly, but she wanted to wait.

It was her rule, and she knew that Arizona would respect it until Callie said it wasn't a rule anymore. And it was that thought that propelled Callie out of bed and towards the bathroom.

Taking a deep breath just outside the bathroom door, she smiled as she heard Arizona humming to herself, and could see her dancing through the sliver of the frame and the door. Stripping out of her clothes as fast and silently as she could, and before Arizona, who had her back turned to both doors that separated them, knew what was happening, Callie stepped into the shower wrapping her arms around a startled Arizona and turned the heat up in their now shared shower.

"I changed my mind," She said, laying her lips on the milky white skin she loved, and splaying her hands on Arizona's body, one over her abdomen and the other lower on the blond's body. Callie heard the sharp intake of breath as their bodies melded together, and felt Arizona's hands touch her own body she harshly breathed out. "Rule's out."

Turning Arizona in her arms, Callie wasted no time in making love to the woman that she loved.

* * *

_First off, sorry for the non-sexiness of this chapter, I was asked for sexy. I don't do sexy. It's tough enough for me to write this... the sexy is just... well sexy. And I ain't sexy._

_ Except when I sing 'I'm Too Sexy"... because that's an awesome song._

_ So I want to thank all the people who are reading this. You guys are awesome. I average about 11 reviews a chapter, which is the second highest I've ever done for a multi chapter story, and that's on you guys. You rock my world. Thanks to Mathiilde3, funkyshaz7, AR4550 and thetamarine, you guys always wonderful words of encouragement and advice, and I do thank you for all of it. Also charming301micah, NncyL72, IAYKIA and Auggy1985. You guys always reviewed... which always made me smile. This chapter is for the nine of you specially. To all my anyonmus reviewers, you guys are great. Thank you all._

_ This is the last chapter and because you guys stuck with me this long, I'm gonna share something real personal. For the last few years the USA has been relasing quarters with the states on them. I have an Arizona quarter in my wallet. It goes everywhere I do, because with it, I can keep Callie and Arizona alive in my heart... even if they aren't together... they will be. Because I believe. I believe that love can conquer all, I believe that if Shonda Ryhmes is as brilliant as we all know she is, there is now way that Callie and Arizona are not getting back together. Eventually. As I stated in "Tiny Human Steps" I believe in possibility. And that's all we need Shonda... just a little._

_ Once more, I love you guys, and I'm out of CalZona idea's, so this will be the last you hear of my for a while... though you never really know. Peace my peoples. And remember, embrace the possibility._

_ -Jessie (rawpotato)_


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